It would appear Wiarton Willie was right. The Weather Network is predicting an early spring, but a real cold spell first.
Meteorologist Michael Carter told BlackburnNews.com before it starts to warm up, southwestern Ontario will have to suffer some frigid temperatures that will send the thermometer well below normal for the next few weeks.
"I think that the month of March is actually going to be two sides of a coin," said Carter. "With the big storm system that we just had come through to close out February, that's going to usher in a period of below normal temperatures, a pattern that does not look unlike what we saw back in January. It won't be that extreme in terms of the cold, but we certainly will be persistently below normal."
He also predicts the region may get a little more snow towards the end of this week.
However, Carter said winter would not outstay its welcome.
"Last year, we had colder weather lingering well into the spring season. We had a big winter storm in April," he explained. "This year, once spring arrives, we do expect to see warm temperatures really taking hold in late March and early April."
Overall, average temperatures throughout spring will be normal, he said. There also appear to be fewer storms on the horizon, but that does not mean there won't be some spring flooding, especially further north where the snowpack remains, but also in areas like Windsor-Essex where most of the snow is already gone.
"We have a lot of warm water out there. The Gulf of Mexico has been quite warm. The gulf stream has been warm," said Carter. "What that means is when we do get storms they tend to be big rainmakers."
As for the rest of Canada, Carter suspected British Columbia, and Alberta could see a warmer than usual spring and dry. In Central and Eastern Canada, overall temperatures and precipitation will be closer to what Canadians have come to expect.