CANADA
Weather
Rising temps to boost 'bummer' of a summer: Environment Canada
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 2:29 PM ET
CBC News
Don't write the obituary on summer just yet, cautions David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist.
Drought in the Prairies
(Todd Korol/Reuters) Some farmers are relying on crop insurance to cover their costs as a dry spell is devastating crops in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Cool, cloudy weather in Toronto
(Mark Blinch/Reuters) Between June 1 and July 1, approximately 65 millimetres of rain have fallen in Toronto.
CBC Digital Archives
From the dustbowl years of the Great Depression to some of the more recent Prairie dry spells, CBC Archives explores the history of drought in Western Canada.
"July is still fresh and young, we still have a way to go," Phillips said in mid-July. "Our definition of summer from Environment Canada is June 1 to Aug. 31. We haven't even reached the middle of July."
For many Canadians who are accustomed to a short summer, the unseasonably cold weather has stripped the sizzle out of summer. Few tourists are opting to splash about on chilly and empty beaches. Meanwhile, a stubborn drought threatens to jeopardize many Prairie crops and farmers in eastern Canada have been struggling with unrelenting rain and soggy fields.
Farmer Benoit Michaud in Bouctouche Bay, N.B., has struggled with his crop of beets this year.
"We tried to seed but the rain hit," he said. "We got two inches — that was a no no."
So far this summer, only Winnipeg and Whitehorse have been spared from the cold weather, enjoying warmer than usual temperatures. The rest of Canada has been left to grumble, Phillips said.
"Canadians, to my sense, have given up on summer," Phillips said. "They've said, 'this is a bummer of a summer — this is two years in a row where we haven't had summer. This is two bad winters, two tough summers, nothing's fair ever anymore. The weather is like the economy, it sucks.' These are the types of comments that I'm hearing."
Indeed, a plunging jet stream has resulted in the cooling temperatures seen across most of Canada, according to CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe.
"[The jetstream is] dipping so far to the south in the west and as you head to eastern Canada it dips down again," she said. "The jetstream is that band of fast-moving air in the upper atmosphere that divides the cooler air to the north to the warm, summer-like temperatures to the south.
"That jetstream isn't letting the warm air north of the border with the exceptions of Whitehorse and Winnipeg.…The other factor is a couple of pesky lows that have decided to hang out in through Ontario and Quebec, just spinning down that cooler air and making for not only a cool summer for eastern Canada but a wet, foggy and cloudy one."
The upside to the consistent, cool temperatures is that there have been fewer incidents of wild weather thus far, Phillips said, adding that last year there were three times the number of hail storms in the Prairie provinces. There have been a few weak tornadoes and lightning strikes are also down.
Phillips said the colder summer has also helped Torontonians cope with what could have been a smellier garbage strike. With good air quality and comfortably cool evenings, consumers are opting not to switch on their air conditioners and are saving some cash.
Environment Canada temperature probabilities July-Sept. 2009 (CBC) A hummer of a summer?
But sun lovers take heart, warmer weather may yet blow across Canada. Phillips notes we haven't yet reached the dog days of summer — where the temperature on average reaches its highest level — which typically arrives in mid- to late-July.
Environment Canada's seasonal forecast for August, September and October also suggests southern Ontario and parts of Quebec, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan can expect more than average precipitation. Atlantic Canada and B.C. can expect less than average rain in the months ahead. Precipitation in Saskatchewan is projected to be average, according to the forecast.
"My sense is that things will begin to change around the time that we go to the dog days of summer … [it] will be warmer than normal," Phillips said.
"If that's the case, then I think Canadians will forget soon what a bummer of a summer it is and maybe it will be the hummer of a summer."
