OTTAWA -- Canada’s top weather forecaster has a reward for Ottawa residents after a record-breaking snowstorm to wrap up February.

Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips tells CTV Morning Live the weather agency is predicting a warmer than normal spring for the capital.

A total of 17 centimetres of snow fell at the Ottawa Airport on Thursday, setting a record for the greatest snowfall on Feb. 27. The previous record was 11.2 centimetres back on Feb. 27, 1967.

Overall the storm brought 19.6 centimetres of snow and 4.3 millimetres of rain and freezing rain to Ottawa on Wednesday and Thursday.

Pembroke received 34 centimetres of snow.

“Clearly, it was no perhaps snowmageddon that you had, but it was no snow big-deal,” Phillips said Friday morning.

“It was a big storm. I think maybe you didn’t get the 40 centimetres as forecasted, you got half of that, because there were hours of rain, freezing rain and ice pellets.”

Ottawa has received 182 centimetres of snow so far this winter.

Phillips notes December, January and February have been warmer than normal compared to last year, with only nine days of temperatures below minus 20C.

“I don’t think it was a painful kind of winter,” Phillips said.

Warm Spring

The meteorological spring officially begins on March 1.

Environment Canada will release its spring forecast on Sunday, and Phillips says it will show Ottawa will enjoy a mild spring.

“It’s good news. We’re saying that March, April, May is going to be milder than normal,”

But Phillips says you shouldn’t plan to put away the snow shovel just yet, adding “don’t write the obituary” on winter.

He notes Ottawa receives a quarter of its annual snowfall in March and April.