Weather or not...

by Andrew Mitchell

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I know there's something Canadian — and everything Torontonian — in regards to complaining about the weather. But I grew up with four seasons, with long summers being one of them. I miss summer. I also miss spring and fall, which more often than not get compressed into a few rainy months in this part of the world.

Even vacations haven't brought any relief. My family went to Mexico in January 2010, only to arrive to low temperatures and snow across the Gulf in Florida. I went to California in May 2011 for a wedding and got about two days of somewhat warm weather out of eight. It even rained during a two-day trip to Vegas in February, although the few hours of sunshine between conference sessions were incredible.

The only really nice weather I've had the last few years has been on trips home to Toronto to visit family — but even then I've always missed the real heat by a week or two.

People will insist that they much prefer cool weather here to the heat, humidity and swelter of a Toronto summer, but here's the thing — I always kind of liked it. I've never had air conditioning in my life, and while it can be hard to sleep when it's still 28 degrees at midnight, there's also something great about being able to walk around in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops at 3 a.m. that makes it all worth it.

Who knows what summer of 2012 will bring?

The Old Farmer's Almanac is actually predicting that summer will be warmer and drier than average in southern B.C., and slightly cooler in southern Ontario. Environment Canada's long-range seasonal forecast is predicting the same for B.C. — higher than normal temperatures from June to September and about the normal amount of precipitation.

The bad news is that Environment Canada is predicting a cooler than normal spring in this part of the world, March through May. I can live with that and enjoy the spring powder if summer is really coming this year (and we're supposed to get a brief taste of that this weekend).

Of course, anything can happen. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Summer of 2012 will be a real summer at last.

You're on notice, Whistler weather.

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