Snowstorms

When I went grocery shopping last week, I saw numerous bottles of hand sanitizer. It was sold out everywhere prior to that. Limit was 2, so I grabbed 2 lol. Now we wait for Lysol and/or Clorox wipes to be restocked.

Looks like this will be the first time since 1993 that YYZ has failed to hit 70F before May. This has only happened 14 times since 1938 (when records began). The latest date ever was May 19, 1978. < No thank you.

Much of winter was above average so a below normal strech was inevitable.

April 2012 was near normal by all accounts. May 2012 was exceptionally warm which gave way to a warm summer thereafter.

8th straight day now, including today, with low's below freezing. Currently 32F with a windchill of 18F and light flurries. Feels more like December than late April. Another terrible start to Spring. The PNA may flip negative come early May, which aligns with the NAO flip, so we'll see if that changes as we progress towards the last few days of the month.

17 days into April and YYZ is running below average for the month. Still 13 days left to go, including today, so we'll see how the month progresses. If we finish below average, it'll be the first time since November.

It was an exceptionally mild winter but unlike previous mild winters, i.e. 2011-12, we fared leagues better. February seems to be our best month of late, so it's no surprise February ended up above average in DTW. I think our 12 year running average is 15" at YYZ, way above our 1981-2010 average of 9.5" and 1971-2000 average of 8.8". Snowcover was almost absent this winter. We'd get a couple inches and within a few days it'd be gone. I think the reason DTW saw 41 days with snowcover this year was because we had an active storm track all winter long. There was hardly any arctic air this winter. Hence why I refuse to give this winter anything higher than a B+. Hard to forget that 3" rain storm back in Jan lol. Nonetheless, nice to see both Chicago and Detroit finishing at or slightly above average.

Did you see that video of him putting a mask on?

Crazy how despite all odds, both Detroit and Toronto finished above average this winter. How did Jan and Feb fare? YYZ recorded 21" in Feb. Ended up being the 9th snowiest Feb on record, if I'm not mistaken.

3-15K alone is devastating but 100K is just catastrophic. We've seen over 400 cases a day now for the last few days. Apparently were not testing as vigorously as other countries are so that number could be a lot higher. Correct me if I'm wrong tho. I don't know if you've heard but some family in Brampton got fined 100K for throwing a "party" despite Ford prohibiting gatherings of more than 5 people. My WFH got extended till May 1 now and I suspect it may get extended again as we approach the end of the month. April will be a rough month but if these social distancing measures are increasingly forced, then May can end up a lot better.

Ohh, makes sense! Thanks for that. Do you think Ford needs to issue a mandatory stay at home order?

A friend of mine used to work at an Asian grocery store about a decade ago. He used to tell me how much they all smoked. I think it was a pack a day or something close to that.

They've got the army ready to deploy in case the Federal Government issues a mandatory order for people to stay at home. There was a lot of people walking around ignoring social-distancing yesterday lol. Tbh, I think that order is necessary because some people are still taking this very lightly. I'm working from home till the end of April now.

Now I'm not going to single out an entire race, but the article below is pretty messed up. This is a nation wide problem. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8163761/Chinese-markets-selling-bats.html I believe this is more than a political issue. It's a societal issue which stems from old traditions that they've continued to carry on till this very day.They still haven't learned their lesson yet despite SARS and Corona. Strangely enough they're now blaming USA for deliberately bringing the virus to China which according to them, started in Italy. It really can't get much worse than that lol.

I go once a week to get groceries but like you said, it's risky. That online grocery shopping has some risks too. What if the delivery person has symptoms or if the products have the virus on them. Now thats obviously stretching it but I've become cautious with everything now lol. 211 new cases in ON today. No signs of it slowing down so far.

More unfortunate news coming out of Europe today. 889 new deaths in Italy, 674 in Spain, 260 in UK and 319 in France. One can only hope this starts slowing down soon but it doesn't seem like it. I don't think summer will have any profound impacts on this virus.

They've closed all parks, facilities, trails and beaches in Toronto too. On-top of that, anyone travelling back to the country will need to self-isolate themselves for 14 days or face being charged or arrested. I don't know how they're going to enforce this but this should've been done a week ago. I heard Trump wants to put troops along the Canadian-US Border. Is that true?

Really? The interest should be waived too. Its not like people are sitting at home because they want to. Isn’t EI only 55% of your avg insurable weekly earnings?

Schools depend on the province. For now schools in Ontario are closed until April 6th. Universities and colleges have moved the remainder of the semester online. I'm not sure about final exams though. I haven't heard anything about $950 every two weeks lol. Canadians are eligible to apply for EI (employment insurance) if they've been laid off or if they're in self isolation. The waiting period has been waived. The mortgage part is true but there's some controversy going on as the banks are being difficult about it. Canadians with federal student loans are getting a break on loan and interest payments for the next 6 months. They've also announced property tax deferrals but that's based upon on each municipality’s discretion. They've also temporarily suspended rental evictions to those who can't pay their monthly rent.

Spring. Winter finished 3 days ago

Quebec has closed all shopping malls, schools and restaurant dining rooms until May 1. Total cases in Quebec have climbed up to 219 as of today.

Another 2" will put us above 55" for the winter making it the snowiest winter at YYZ since 08-09 lol. Pretty sad if you think about it. Hopefully it's the last. I'm ready for Spring.

The last couple of days have been really bad in Italy. Just horrible. Hoping for the best in the coming weeks.

58 new cases today. People continue to travel and go outside their homes for non-essential things. Until that stops, this won't stop spreading. I'm working from home till mid April. I have a feeling that'll likely get extended till May and perhaps even our schools and other businesses. It ceases to amaze me that some people think this is some sort of conspiracy. Nobody is gaining anything from this.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think we have any vaccine for SARS. If we do discover a vaccine for this virus, plus all the R&D and testing, it likely won't be mass distributed until next Winter. Very tragic to hear whats happening in Europe. Until things can calm down and revert back to normal in Europe, we will likely stay in lockdown mode here in North America. Swine flu back in 2009 was pretty bad too on a global scale. If people can abide by the rules and self isolate themselves, we can work together as a society to control the spread.