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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It's probably not much of a surprise but winter 2011-12 has gone down in the history books as one of the warmest on record.

AJ Lawrence, 9, left, and Mason Weber, 8, brought their bikes out Saturday morning as they enjoyed the mild weather on 52 Avenue. The Mackenzie District, which includes most of the NWT, recorded its second warmest winter this year since records began in 1948. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

It has been the second warmest winter since records started being kept in 1948, according to Environment Canada.

Temperatures in the Mackenzie District – an area encompassing most of the NWT – between December 2011 and February 2012 were 5.5 C above normal, which have historically averaged -24.6 C over that period, said Environment Canada meteorologist Yvonne Bilan-Wallace.

November's average temperature was one degree colder than the average -13.8 C, followed by four months where temperatures were consistently above normal.

The most extreme temperatures came in February, where Yellowknife set records on the third and fourth day of the month. Feb. 3, 2012 holds a new record high of 3 C, compared to the record low of -48.9 C recorded on that day in 1947. Feb. 4 shattered another record for warmest temperature on record, with thermostats soaring to 3.9 C. The coldest Feb. 4 on record was also in 1947 when the thermostat dipped to -51.2 C.

"So, talk about extremes," said Bilan-Walace.

The weather office splits the country into 11 different climate regions. The Mackenzie District is showing the greatest winter warming trend in Canada, having warmed 4.5 C since data started being recorded for the area.

Six of the 10 warmest winters on record have been in the last 12 years, said Bilan-Wallace.

Environment Canada did not record a single day between December, Janaury, and February where air temperatures fell below -40 C in Yellowknife, said Bilan-Wallace.

"What we didn't see this winter is we didn't see that kind of strong, stagnant atmospheric conditions that were conducive to long periods of the Yellowknife area experiencing the very cold Arctic air coming down from the North," said Bilan-Wallace.

"What you were seeing a lot was a jet stream that was staying farther North from the Pacific than it normally would be, so you were seeing a lot of storms go through the Northern prairies and the southern ends of the territories."

Dry winter

While the Mackenzie District is on a winter warming trend, this is not translating into more precipitation during the winter months.

This past winter, between December and February, ranked 53rd out of the past 65 years in terms of precipitation.

"If you think that is dry, the 2010-11 winter ranks 59th driest at 24.5 per cent below normal," Bilan-Wallace told Yellowknifer. "But that said, it gets even better. (The winter of) 2009-2010 ranked dead last at 39 per cent below normal!"

Only two of the top 10 wettest winters in the Mackenzie District have occurred in the last 12 years.

There was above average snowfall in Yellowknife during November with 42 centimetres of snow falling to the ground but only 2.4 centimetres of sow fell in February – far below the historical average of 17.8 centimetres.

"There is a wide variability of snowfall from year to year," said Bilan-Wallace. "You would have been above-normal. f you could ignore February, you would have been about 30 per cent above normal (snowfall)," said Bilan-Wallace.

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