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Weather: Montreal, January 8th 2009 / -9°C / Light snow / Wind: 13 Km/h / Humidity: 85 %

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Halloween weather expected to be good almost coast-to-coast: Environment Cda

Article online since October 29th 2008, 23:00
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TORONTO - Children heading out to collect Halloween treats Friday night will be pleased to know they're not likely to encounter frightful weather.

Temperatures will be above normal Friday for most of the country except the Territories, with the only serious threat of rain coming in Vancouver, Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said Thursday.

"There's a lot of misery that can ruin a Halloween, and we're just not seeing it anywhere," Phillips said. "It's not a perfect 10, but it is glorious."

Periods of rain are predicted in Vancouver, but Phillips suggested that forecast may turn out not to be as bad as it sounds.

"It may very well be ... between six and eight o'clock at night maybe the rain will let up."

There is also a slight chance of evening showers in Montreal, and afternoon rain in St. John's, N.L., should tail off to be followed by fog patches and blustery winds, Phillips said.

However, most Canadians can expect unseasonably balmy temperatures.

Friday's high in Calgary is expected to reach 16 C compared to a normal high of 7 C, while Toronto is forecast to see a high of 17 C - seven degrees above normal, Phillips said.

"(Trick-or-treaters will) be layering down," Phillips joked, while adding that those in the Territories may want to bundle up a bit more.

In Whitehorse and Yellowknife, temperatures will be slightly below normal - around -10 C - with mostly clear skies, except for a slight chance of flurries in Whitehorse.

Next to Christmas, more people look at the forecast on Halloween than on any other occasion, Phillips said.

"It's a safety issue, it's a comfort issue, it's a timing issue," Phillips said, noting some communities have even had to cancel Halloween some years because of adverse weather.

In recent memory, Halloween weather was at its worst in 1991, when a massive storm battered the northeast United States and the Maritimes, killing 12 people and causing more than US$200 million in damages.

At the same time, a massive snow and ice storm blamed for 22 deaths was burying the U.S. Midwest, with its effects reaching all the way into northwestern Ontario.

That makes such a positive national forecast like Friday's a definite rarity, Phillips said.

"It's hard to find a uniformity, a homogeneity of the weather like it's going to be for Halloween," he said.

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