Spring has been slow to arrive in Southern Manitoba this year with April coming in cooler than normal, according to David Phillips, a climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

However, Phillips says we're going to see a change starting today and through the weekend.

"Typically temperatures in the afternoon should be about twelve degrees (Celsius) this time of year and you're going to see ten, maybe eleven degrees, so it's at least heading in the right direction," he said.

Phillips hopes the cooler temperatures these last two weeks will be winter's last hurray, making way for those warmer spring-time highs we all are waiting for.

"I think the cool air could come back, but typically this time of year it's one or two-day wonders and then you get back to where you have a string of milder days," he said.

According to Phillips, we can expect it to be a bit cooler than normal for the rest of April and into May, noting we just need to be patient for those warmer temperatures to arrive and stay.

And while we may be impatient for warmer days ahead, Phillips doesn't think the past winter in Southern Manitoba was as bad as we think it was.

"We saw snow from Thanksgiving right through Easter and that often makes us feel that this has been too long and too rough, but overall I think there were more warm or mild months than cold months," he said. For example, Altona saw 32 days where the mercury dipped to minus twenty whereas the area usually experiences about forty of those days in the winter.

That being said, Phillips notes it doesn't matter what kind of winter we had, Canadians often become eager at this time of year for the cooler weather to pass.

As for summer, Phillips is predicting a warmer than usual season for Southern Manitoba. He notes however, that while it doesn't seem like much, if temperatures were to be one degree higher than usual that could qualify as above normal.

"I could guarantee you that if I came back in September and said in Altona it was a degree warmer than normal, people would agree. So one degree spread over ninety days, you actually begin to feel it."