Of course, spring varies according to your location ...

[PaulB]

Meanwhile in Ottawa today it's dull skies, rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, lightning and rolling thunder... just another day in paradise.

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[HansV]

[PJ_in_FL]

For everyone's peace of mind, I won't mention the weather in Florida ...

[GeoffW]

For everyone's peace of mind, I won't mention the weather in Florida ...

Nor in Australia.

And where's Rudi to contrast his South African weather, adding to the chorus?

[ChrisGreaves]

Meanwhile in Ottawa today it's dull skies, rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, lightning and rolling thunder... just another day in paradise.

[sympathy]I know how you feel[/sympathy]

Although now that you mention it, i don't, thunderstorms, I mean. I think that we have had one serious "oh-my-god-will-you-look-at-that" thunderstorm each year since I've been here.
Why would that be? Perhaps because we are surrounded by ocean

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Even zooming in to Bonavista, the peninsula is still bounded West, North, and East by sea, so 270º at least.
Toronto had some doozies, and Ottawa seems to be getting the tail end of that.
This morning's email from a friend who lives in Ontario reads "Altho, I was queuing up for a train today to go from Union back to Brockville, and they announced cancellation of all trains due to ice storm issues in E.Ont. and Quebec. I'm spending an unexpected night in the big city, catching a bus in the morning."
CTV news, as always, blames it on the USA - A Colorado something-or-other". (Dave Duvall always blamed the weather on <anything> heading up the Ohio valley", and it is only twenty years ago that my feelings towards Skitterbug began to dissipate)).

BTW I *loved* the comment by the (CTV news on-the-street interview) lady who complained bitterly "This is APRIL; I don't expect this ...". Poor thing.
I noted that Ottawa LRT was down in at least one part of town. Why in Toronto, Ottawa, and points east, does a modern LRT system fail when winter conditions bring snow/ice/freezing rain?

At 7:07 here, bright sunshine is flooding out of the eastern Sky making my backyard look like one of those jigsaw puzzles where the snow was inexplicably coloured blue ...
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

And where's Rudi to contrast his South African weather, adding to the chorus?

Rudi is a bright lad, and he has possibly divined that I have just completed my re-reading of Alan Morehead's "The Blue Nile" (in an appropriate blue hard-cover edition) and his "the White Nile (dun-coloured cover) and am now into Emil Ludwig's "The Nile" (1937) and am bubbling over with questions about how the history of Africa 1750-1920 was taught in South African schools fifty years ago.
Like I said, smart lad!
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

For everyone's peace of mind, I won't mention the weather in Florida ...

No need to worry about that, PJ!
Nobody here wants to wade through my disaster-essay titled "My Hols in Florida (2014)" again.
Cheers, Chris

[PaulB]

The ice storm I posted about above caused extensive damage to trees and property resulting in power outages in many areas of Ottawa. My neighborhood lost power at 3:10 PM yesterday. Power was finally restored at 4:00 PM today. To paraphrase, ‘It was a dark and frigid night.’ I think I got away without any damage although I do see a loose shingle hanging over the edge of my roof.

Quite the relief to have the internet and phone service back. (Yes, yes, I'm very reluctant to give up my landline.)

[ChrisGreaves]

... and who is composing emails about tree deliver seem to have slept right through April and much of the best part of May.

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The four chestnut trees arrived Friday in an obscene package. I taped them to my handlebars and pedaled them home, up the hill. On Monday my gardening colleague from Bunyan's Cove arrived in a huge white pickup truck and carted the trees further south to a property that is large enough to plant and nurture them.

Today threatens to be 5c, so I might break open one of the thirteen compost bins to see whether or not I have had rotting luck over winter.

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And here is good news! There is promise of "A daffodil" and "A tulip" this year!
I feel now that I can still not hold my head up high with those of you who have been posting fields of daffodils since last January, but I can at least lift my eyes a little bit.
I checked the weather data. Over the years 2019-2022 our average April maximum was close to 5c, but this year 2.8c. Today the winds continue from the North, as they have been since early February. The super-cold February snow fall was iced over and is taking a long time to disappear ...
Yesterday brought more flurries of snow, of course ...
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

OK. Time for a bit of serious factuality.
There is gold in those northeast winds of the Newfoundland and Labrador spring if you have a bird’s eye view
(some great photos of birds, too, if you ask me).

I was struck by the fact that twelve (counted so far) birds of some variety or other were spotted by Keen Bird-watchers.
"European golden plover is the default vagrant to show up during these northeast blows of spring. These attractive shorebirds overwinter in large numbers in Ireland and in spring migrate to Iceland to nest. It is during that flight across the expanse of water between Ireland and Iceland that migrating birds are most likely to get caught up in a northeast wind and drift off course toward Neverneverland: a.k.a. Newfoundland and Labrador."
I scrolled Ventusky back to Saturday 29 April, chose "Wind Speed", zoomed out, and watched the stationary wind pattern from Ireland.

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Imagine that you are, say, a Golden Plover from the south-west tip of Ireland planning a summer getaway in Iceland. As usual you hitch a ride on a wind that heads north-west towards Greenland, but just off the tip of Greenland (see that orange doo-dad right off the south-eastern tip of Greenland) you get diverted and end up, if you are lucky, in Newfoundland. If you are unlucky, Newfoundland slips under your right wing and you continue southwards into the north-west Atlantic and a watery grave .

That made me realize that birds in particular have a good chance of being an invasive species around the world, between similar climates of course.
I hadn't thought of Newfoundland being a potential mirror site of Irish avian populations.
I do remember reading Richard Dawkins account of some gull whose species circled the northern latitudes, but by the time that the species had colonized Iceland to Greenland to Canada to Russia to Europe and back to Iceland had evolved into a different species
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

I'm not complaining, honest, but

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How can it be 12c (52F?) and still have flurries (of snow)?
Tonight's minimum is 2c, so in theory we will not dip below freezing for at least 24 hours.
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

I think that now I can declare that spring is here, and hold my head up high.
The compost bins are still partially frozen, but.
Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

That's a right nice group of crocuses (or is that crocusi?). Ours bloomed out a couple of months ago. Currently 86°F here Deep in the Heart of Texas.

[GeoffW]

That's a right nice group of crocuses (or is that crocusi?).

Or perhaps croci (which my spell checker so nicely tried to change to crock).
https://www.gardensillustrated.com/feat ... -or-croci/

Or for Chris trying to emerge from winter, perhaps it should be spelt croaky.

[PJ_in_FL]

I think that now I can declare that spring is here, and hold my head up high.
The compost bins are still partially frozen, but.
Cheers, Chris

Does this make Chris the Punxsutawney Phil of Bonavista, and 5-11 his "coming out" day?

[ChrisGreaves]

That's a right nice group of crocuses (or is that crocusi?).

I dunno Bob. I didn't get enough practice in Slovenian before I left Toronto.

What I do know is that I hope I don't run out of crocus blooms before the good-looking women of Bonavista find an alternate route to avoid Canon Bayley Road
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Or for Chris trying to emerge from winter, perhaps it should be spelt croaky.

Sure feels like it.
Only 39 more days before the nights start getting longer ...
Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Does this make Chris the Punxsutawney Phil of Bonavista, and 5-11 his "coming out" day?

Could be! Or else
Cheers, Chris, Currently Crocus con Compost Cing of Calle Canon Bayley

[ChrisGreaves]

Getting there ...

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Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

The tulips will be out by August, I hope...