If the amount of snow falling in a winter season is your measure of how harsh a winter is, then Montreal's winters are no better or worse than they were 30 years ago.
Across much of the rest of the province, however, it was a lot less snowier than it used to be, according to a new study out of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières.
The study, conducted by environmental science professor Ali Assani, and published in the most recent edition of the International Journal of Climatology, shows that on average, the province received 22 per cent less snow now than it got in the 1980s.
However, the results vary from region to region.
For instance, Assani says the snowfall totals have remained very much the same in the city of Montreal, but in the Laurentians and the Lanaudière region, they've been geting a lot less.
In the Eastern Townships, meantime, the study found it received 30 per cent less snow.
The study did not make any predictions as to whether the trend will continue, nor did it specifially address the possibility that rising temperatures and climate change may have had something to do with the figures, but Assani says he has every reason to think the trend will continue.
"Based on other studies we've seen, we think that the quantity of snow will continue to diminish in Quebec," he says. "Just about all the models we've seen show there'll be less now in Quebec."
And while that might appear to be good news for winter-weary Quebecers, Assani warns that less snow could cause problems.
"The main source of water in Quebec is snow," he says. "So, if the quantity of snow decreases, there will be less water for the rivers for the phratic zones [groundwater]."
In addition, if temperatures hover around the freezing point more often, there's more of a likelihood that water from melting snow can seep into basements, instead of being absorbed into the frozen ground.