WATERLOO REGION — After a winter that wasn’t, an early spring may not be something everyone treasures.

Anyone hoping winter trends bode well for the summer may be in for a rude awakening, says David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

He says winter temperatures are poor predictors of what’s in store during the spring and summer. Warm and dry conditions now could lead to a host of problems in a few months, he said. Like droughts, dry forests may be at greater risk of fires, and bugs and parasites that are usually killed off in cold weather may thrive as temperatures rise.

“The weather you’re blessing right now may be the weather you’re cursing later on,” said Dave Phillips said.

Skunks, raccoons and mice are all active much earlier than normal this spring, said Keith Pothier, of Urban Wildlife Control in Cambridge.

“We’re probably 50 per cent busier than in past year,” he said.

Male raccoons are especially randy in the warm weather as they look for secluded places to mate early and often.

Baby raccoons are arriving now, a month ahead of normal, Pothier said. And surly mother skunks are busy looking for dens — like under your front porch — and getting into aromatic fights with other skunks over such prime real estate.

“They’re spraying at each other ... there’s lots of calls about houses smelling.”

Harsh winters tend to control wildlife populations, as does the amount of food available in springtime for young, Pothier said. If the weather stays warm, he expects to be busy dealing with lots of raccoons in sheds, squirrels in rotted eaves and skunks in house foundations.

Keep your trash cans buttoned up tight so they go looking elsewhere for food, he said. And think about getting rid of your bird feeders, because they attract all the neighbourhood rats, squirrels and mice to your backyard.

Across Canada, winter 2009-2010 was 4C warmer than normal, the warmest winter since records began to be kept in 1948.

In Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, it was the fourth warmest on record: 2.1 C above normal.

“It was an easy winter, but it wasn’t that it was that warm, but there wasn’t as much snow,” said Chris Scott, meteorologist at the Weather Network.

Nationally, weather was 22 per cent drier than normal. At the Breslau weather office, it was 28.7 per cent drier than normal.

The airport station recorded 73.9 cm of snow this winter, compared to the normal of 159 cm. Winter 1982-83 holds the record with the least snow, with 77.8 cm, said Geoff Coulson, an meteorologist at Environment Canada.

While Environment Canada’s long-range spring forecast calls for near-normal precipitation and cooler temperatures, the Weather Network is more optimistic temperatures will be near normal.

Coulson isn’t convinced a last blast of snowy, winter weather won’t return in late March or early April.

“There’s always the possibility of Mother Nature having one more trick up her sleeve.”

Grand River Conservation Authority officials aren’t worried about the lack of local snow to melt and fill reservoirs to keep rivers running higher through the summer.

Don’t be over-eager to start working on your frozen lawn, said Vince Oldford a turf manager at Lawrence Lawn Care of Ayr.

“People get exited when the warm weather comes,” he said.

Hold off on raking, seeding or fertilizing until the ground warms up to at least 7C, Oldford said.

Lawns green up using nutrients stored from last fall, so there’s no need to apply fertilizer until later in April, he said. Sure, your lawn will look green fast, but end up sickly in the long run.

“It’s like using steroids ... bad things happen.”

kswayze@therecord.com