Winters not nearly as bad as they used to be!

Remember when your grandfather told you how he had to walk ten miles, through ten feet of snow, to get to school!!!!

Well, maybe he wasn't exaggerating!

Here's a warm thought for residents of a cold country: Canadian winters are not nearly as frigid as they once were.

Vast swaths of this country are in a deep winter freeze, and there are plenty of news reports about the cold snap, but Environment Canada figures suggest it could be far worse.

In fact, not so long ago, it was.

Figures compiled for The Canadian Press reveal a drastic drop in the number of cold days — defined as anything under minus-15 degrees — in recent decades.

The trend is noted from coast to coast — in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. Even Vancouver's mild winters have gotten milder.

The most striking change was in Toronto. Figures compiled by Environment Canada suggest a 52 per cent drop in cold days from the 1970s to the decade just completed.

During the 1970s, there were 276 cold days in Toronto, and not even half that number — just 130 — came during the last decade

By The Canadian Press