Shubenacadie Sam says Nova Scotia is in for more wintry weather

CITYnews halifax / By Rachel Morgan

The tried and true method of determining spring’s arrival has deduced that Nova Scotians are in for six more weeks of winter weather.

When Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam poked her nose out from the pint-sized barn door of her enclosure at a wildlife park north of Halifax Sunday morning, stepping out into the bright sun and -18 C cold, her shadow was present. She then immediately turned around and went back inside.

“Not surprisingly, it seems Sam wants to get back inside,” Andrew Boyne, the director of the wildlife division at the Department of Natural Resources, told the crowd. “More winter!”

A study from the climate science organization Climate Central found that Nova Scotia has, on average, added seven days of above-freezing temperatures between 2014 and 2023. But so far this year, the Atlantic provinces have experienced their fair share of frigid temperatures.

January started above 0 C before dipping below freezing within the first week of the year. By the third week of the month temperatures dropped as low as -16 C, with wind chills as low as -22 C.

Inclement weather conditions even closed schools in the Chigecto-Central Regional Centre for Education in Cumberland County, Pictou County, Colchester County, and the municipality of East Hants, as well as all schools in the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education and Digby County Schools within the South Shore Regional Centre for Education Jan. 20.

While Shubenacadie Sam is typically the first North American groundhog to issue a long-term forecast, due to her location in the east, she was followed suit by Quebec’s Fred la Marmotte and Ontario’s Wiarton Willie.

But it seemed the groundhogs across the country could not agree on the forecast.

Fred la Marmotte also saw his shadow, predicting a long winter ahead. But Wiarton Willie foresaw a different fate for Ontario.

“Willie didn’t see his shadow. We will have an early spring,” Wiarton Mayor Jay Kirkland said to cheering crowd during an event Sunday morning.

This week’s weather forecast

Sunday: Mainly sunny. High -2 C. Low -11 C.

Monday: Chance of flurries. High 1 C. Low -1 C.

Feb. 4: Cloudy with 60 per cent chance of precipitation. High 1 C. Low -10 C.

Feb. 5: Mix of sun and cloud. High -8 C. Low -13 C.

– With files from the Canadian Press