April’s wild side will show its true colours across Canada
Prepare for a month full of changeable conditions across Canada as we head into April
April is a wild and fickle month, capable of delivering stretches of idyllic spring weather, but prone to notorious temperature swings.
Folks who are looking forward to consistently warm springtime conditions will have to manage their expectations during an April in Canada.
While the month often teases us with brief tastes of early summer-like weather, most years it also delivers winter’s grand finale with plenty of snow and ice.
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Cooler conditions will dominate for much of April
April falls smack in the middle of our rocky transition from the cold depths of winter to the steamy torrents of summer.
Battles between stubborn cold air to the north and bursts of comfortable warmth from the south reach their peak during a typical April—as a result, our weather conditions can vary wildly from one day to the next.
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Overall, our April ahead looks to live up to its reputation of being a fickle time of year.
It’s likely that colder-than-normal temperatures will assert dominance across much of Canada through the month. These pushes of colder air won’t focus on any particular region throughout the month, alternating between Eastern Canada and Western Canada.
While cooler weather will try to prevail, warmer conditions will arrive at times, especially as dynamic springtime storms creep across the border. The second week of April in particular will spoil western Canada with several days of warmer weather. Meanwhile, it will feel more like March across Ontario and Quebec.
We can’t rule out a brief taste of summer-like warmth late in the month, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until at least May for more consistently comfortable warmth anywhere across Canada.
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Active storm track across the east
This changeable temperature pattern will contribute to an active storm track into Ontario and Quebec, bringing the region near-normal or above-normal precipitation for April.
Surges of warmth will accompany these storms north of the border, but don’t let your guard down—some of that precipitation will fall as snow, especially across northern Ontario and into Quebec.
Across the west, an active pattern is likely to focus its energy on the western United States. Some of these systems could spill into the southern Prairies, with the potential for above-normal precipitation inching across the border into portions of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
Hope springs eternal for warm-weather lovers
April has something of an unearned reputation across Canada, the bulk of which likely stems from ample springtime weather blossoming south of the border. But even though this isn’t the gloriously warm time of year many come to expect, there are plenty of glimmers of hope throughout a typical April.
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The concept of ‘normal’ changes very quickly through April, as average daily temperatures rise 5 to 10 degrees from the beginning to the end of the month across most of Canada. The length of daylight will continue to increase, as well, with each day providing just a little more potential sunshine than the last.
And, of course, by the end of April the start of meteorological summer on June 1 will be only one month away!