June in January

From deep in the central U.S. a puckish zephyr danced northward, trailing an unseasonable perfume of spring across the central and maritime provinces. Dandelions bloomed in Hamilton. Three tulips popped up outside Fort Erie's police station; Elgin County farmers got in some early plowing; a Proton farmer tapped some maple trees, found the sap running. At Goderich the courthouse lawn had to be trimmed. Bees and mosquitoes began buzzing around Dundalk. A flock of blackbirds chirped near Truro.

In Ottawa, the broad lawn on Parliament Hill shook off its mantle of snow. All across the province deep drifts fell away to little dirty mounds; streets were choked with slush. The Sauble River, the Etobicoke, the Humber, the Sydenham and the Big Head boiled over their banks. As the bottom went out of roads in the Maritimes. logging virtually stopped.

The temperature rose to 52DEG in Montreal, 57DEG in Toronto, 62DEG in Windsor. Carefree citizens kicked off their galoshes, doffed their heavy overcoats to enjoy one of the warmest, longest and most widespread January thaws in recorded weather history.

But it was too good to last. A cold Arctic blast gathered momentum west of Hudson Bay, moved eastward across the Lakes. Canadians sighed: winter was here again.

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