As spring officially begins Tuesday night, Canadians can bid farewell to one of the warmest winters ever recorded.

Figures from Environment Canada show that the winter of 2006-07 tied with 1986-87 as the second-warmest winter since records began in 1948.

A pedestrian braves snowy conditions during a blizzard in January in Saskatoon.
(Geoff Howe/Canadian Press)

Most of the country experienced temperatures at least 3 C above normal, while parts of B.C., the Yukon and the Northwest Territories saw the mercury hovering about 5 C higher than usual.

David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, said the winter was a surprising one, hitting different parts of the country at different times and seeing huge temperature variations. He noted that Canadians experienced very different winters depending on where they live.

"In places like Atlantic Canada, Ontario, even the Prairies, it was the 10th- to the 18th-warmest winter. Southerners are probably thinking, 'What is Environment Canada talking about being the second-warmest winter on record?' " he said.

"But when you look at the whole country, most areas were surprisingly very much warmer than normal."

Despite the overall warmth, this winter is still colder than last year's, which NASA and Environment Canada called the warmest winter in on record. The winter of 2005-06 was almost a full degree warmer, with the average temperature at 3.9 C above the norm.

Even though this past winter was a bit cooler, it's still part of a trend of rising winter temperatures. Six of the 10 warmest winters on record have come in the last 10 years.

Spring has sprung, sort of

While the first day of spring has technically arrived, Phillips cautions Canadians not to get too excited about the weather just yet.

"In Canada, spring is very reluctant to come," he says. "If you look at even the balmiest places in Canada, 10-20 per cent of snowfall occurs after the first day of spring."

He pointed out that Canada has seen April snowfalls in 66 of the last 68 years.

"My advice always is don't put away the snow shovels," he laughs. "We can't write the obituary on winter yet."