Spring has officially sprung — at least on the calendar.
With Friday marking the first day of the spring season, Canadians did not wake up to stereotypical spring weather of sunny skies and breezy winds.
Many provinces are experiencing snow and rain, fog, cloudy conditions or ice crystals on Friday, according to Environment Canada.
Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell said that it might be a while before the country gets to put winter conditions aside.
“April is expected to be colder than normal for much the country,” he said.
“Now, normals are higher in April, so it’s not like it’s going to be a deep freeze or anything like that. But still, it is a slow go for the next month, month and a half.”
The weeks leading up to the spring season have not been an easy ride, with Farnell saying that much of Canada is still feeling the effects of the past winter season.
“We have this Arctic air that is just to the north. It’s encompassing much of the Arctic right now, but it doesn’t take much for days to be below seasonal.“
But even as the seasons change, Canada might not even have seen its last snowfall.
“I don’t know if there’s a city other than maybe Vancouver that is done with the snow this year,” said Farnell.
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“It’s going to be even for the first half of April, the likelihood of at least seeing some snow falling.”
However, that potential snow might not be as harsh as what the country has previously seen.
“The good news is once you get into April with that higher sun angle, when it does fall, you just have to be patient,” Farnell said.
“You may not even need to shovel. You just got to wait a day or so and it’ll melt.”
Canadians experienced a tougher, more bitter winter than usual, with the majority of the country being trapped in a polar vortex for days on end to begin 2026, yet it might not be the last time Canadians feel that kind of weather.
“The polar vortex, it’s kind of retreated back up to the north, so we’re likely done with that until maybe next winter,” Farnell said.
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s latest global mean temperature forecast indicates that 2026 “will likely be among the hottest years on record.”
With that, Canada is bracing to experience an El Niño starting in June, which Environment Canada states “can be distinguished when the surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific extending westward from Ecuador become warmer than average. The changing pattern of the Pacific Ocean causes a shift in the atmospheric circulation, which then impacts weather patterns across much of the earth.”
Hossein Bonakdari, a civil engineering professor at the University of Ottawa whose work focuses on using modelling systems to assess patterns in meteorological and climate data, says El Niño years are worth paying attention to.
“An El Niño is when the Pacific Ocean becomes warmer than normal, this is not something new. This is a part of the circulation of the weather,” said Bonakdari.
“We should be careful. It’s not something that controls weather every day, but this important change can clearly shift the overall pattern of weather.”
Farnell noted that extreme heat could exacerbate Canada’s wildfire season, noting that the country has already experienced “very active fire seasons” the past few years.
“If you do get hot weather, a lot of lightning strikes, that could lead to more fires,” Farnell said.
“We’re just going to have to see how the El Niño and how the hot summer may impact that fire season. But it could be an active year again, especially out west.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.