I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta in the 1950’s, 1960’s and the early 1970’s. (Except 1964-65, when I lived in Eugene, Oregon, which ruined me forever to Northern Alberta!)
In those years, winters were COLD! I’m talking about -60F for months. I’m talking brutal cold. Fur coat and every single part of the body and face covered by a couple of layers of wool, or natural fibres. I used to have to walk 1/2 mile to the bus in high school, and that is how I dressed. I remember we would go to Jasper in the Rockies to ski, and it was -40F to -45. One unpleasant run, then warm up for 2 hours.
That was every winter! I hated it, and escaped to the BC coast in 1973. Where I forgot about cold, even when I moved to the interior of BC. Except one winter, 1979-80, when it froze so hard, it broke all the water and sewer lines in Creston BC. We always had over 6 feet of snow. So, a gradual warming, but still occasional very cold winters.
Back on the coast, we had a few winters with snow that usually melted when the rains returned 3 days later. One year, my husband made an ice rink and the kids skated for a month.
Then my husband was transferred back to Alberta in 1999. We built a house in the country, and the first three years, we had a winter drought. We had about 5 inches of snow. The temperatures never got really cold for long. One year, we had -39C for 2 days. That was the 2 days we were moving back to BC, and my poor husband packed in it. Other years, maybe 1 day of -39 C and that was it. The summers were much drier. We had to conserve water in the summer, with strict watering restrictions, which had never happened in the past.
There really was a dramatic warming in Edmonton, between the 1960’s and the 2014. Warm winter trends have continued, and people get freaked out about -20 C -4F. When I was a kid, we weren’t even allowed in the playroom for recess until it was -25F/-32 C. That’s right, we played outside in blizzards, storms and cold, and had fun. The only restriction was not licking the monkey bars. Because you would freeze your tongue to them.
In 12 years of school, from 1959-1971, the schools were not closed for one day. Never! Despite temperatures in the -40’s all the time. (They used downtown temperatures, with the city heat sink!) I have no idea about today, but in those cold winter days, we got to school, or we were marked absent. We all just did got used to it.
The soil is much more dry in Alberta than it used to be. Animals, birds and bugs have moved farther north, than they were in my youth. As for BC, we had 5 months without rain in the interior this year, and it resulted in HUGE fires and smoke covering BC and Alberta for 2 solid months. Not my best summer! Our place was fine, the forest around us burned down in 2003. But, a lot of money in water to keep the yard green, which is in the city bylaws, and my veggies growing. It is getting more desert like here. And no brutal cold, I am happy to report. And when I lived in the BC interior in the 1970’s, I only remember one year, 1971 when there were so many fires the smoke covered most of the province.
So, when you actually look north, you will find warmer climates. I’ve seen videos of land being washed away in the Arctic, as the sea levels rise. Canada has a lot of Islands in the north, and they are literally mass wasting away.
While I am certain we have global warming in Canada, I won’t hazard a guess as to the cause. It could be man made, or more likely, the earth is in a cycle in which we are closer to the sun. Global warming will open up more of the northern provinces for agriculture, but then, more southernly places will lose the ability to harvest, because of drought and top soil loss.
I personally think Trump doesn’t have a clue about global warming. But, I am glad he defeated ISIS, and I hope he will help shut down NK and the Iranian religious dictatorship. Because, you can’t be an expert in everything! So, stick to defeating terrorism and boosting the economy! No wait, Canada is losing big time in trade since Trump came in, and idiot Trudeau came to power. Lucky for you, Americans, is all I can say!
