Winnipeg has been deluged by rain throughout the spring and summer. (CBC)

Winnipeggers have suffered through a record setting eight consecutive months of cooler-than-normal temperatures, says Environment Canada.

Following a brutally cold winter, and a soggy spring with a flood that was the second-worst in the past 100 years, the city's residents were thirsty for a warm spell in summer. So far, no such luck.

As July goes out with a whimper — a rainy forecast high of 18 C rather than the normal 26 C — it will go down as Winnipeg's third-coldest on record, said Dave Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist.

It was a month in which the mercury failed to reach 30 C. In fact, the 30 C mark has been hit just one time in 2009, said Phillips. That was back on June 18, when it was technically still spring.

Even the birds are leaving city parks, which have sat soggy and empty for many days this summer. (CBC)

Winnipeg's typically scorching summer has been missing in action for two years, Phillips said.

"You normally would get 14 or 15 of those [30 C] suckers. Last year, you had five and you didn't get your first one until Aug. 16," he said. "So, when you consider it, if you're only going to get one this year — that's six [in two years] — that would be the lowest you've ever seen.

"And that string of eight months and counting [of below average temperatures] makes it the coldest such period in 14 years. If anybody deserves good weather, it's you."

More of same for August?

It doesn't appear as though relief is on the way anytime soon, with Phillips suggesting Winnipeg could be in for more of the same wretched weather through August.

On the flipside, fewer people are using air conditioning, which means electricity consumption was down three per cent in July, said Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Glen Schneider.

Tim Shanks, spokesperson for Winnipeg Water and Waste, said water consumption was down 10 per cent in July, likely because the rain has cut back on the need for people to water their lawns and gardens.

"One of the indicators we pay close attention to is the amount of water we pump each day, which we call the daily demand. And we measure that in millions of litres or megalitres per day, and as you'd expect the day with the highest daily demand all year normally occurs in the summer," said Shanks. "So far this summer our maximum daily demand occurred on June 24."

If consumption doesn't increase in August, the city this year will record the lowest maximum daily pumping since 1962, he said.