Wayne W. asked -

<<<If anyone has tabulated spring arrival dates and has time to make
the kind of comparisons I did, I'd be very interested in seeing your
results, or a summary of them. I'd also be interested in any comments
from our resident weather guru and former FIELD NOTES regional editor,
Jack Bowling. Were arrival dates late in Prince George, Jack? And can
you provide any data on just how much cooler and stormier this spring
was than usual? I don't have the data at hand, and I am reluctant to
pay the exorbitant fees demanded for monthly weather summaries by
Canada's Atmospheric Environment Service.>>>

Since the keeper of the data just happens to be on holidays right now,
I will ask her if she would like to take this on. It shouldn't be too
onerous a task given that we have had good coverage and reportage this
year. I think we will find that some were really late, most on time,
and a few early. More interesting were the valley concentrations of
higher elevtion breeders than the actual migration timelines.

As for the weather - well, it was pretty stormy all right. Beginning in
late October and contining right through most of March. Not sure of the
actual number of full-blown storms to hit the coast but I think it was
at least 20, well above the winter average. It was the stormiest winter
since that of 1971/72. April was the transition month from
fast-moving, warm-core low pressure systems to slow-moving, cold-core
low pressure systems, the parade of which began in
May (everybody's favorite "Cold Lows"). April also was the driest of all
the past eight months but still cool. And I must maintain my
professionalism and refrain from commenting on my employer's fee
scheduling for weather summaries ;-)

-------
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca