An official with Environment Canada says we haven’t seen a hot and dry summer like this one since 2012, and expects it continue into August.
Senior climatologist with Environment Canada Dave Phillips says this summer has been much hotter than the past few.
“Anything around the 30-degree mark or above, you’ve had about 14 days of that. Last year at this time, one day.”
Environment Canada has issued a heat warning for the majority of Ontario, including the London region, though no temperature records are expected to be broken.
The heat warning is expected to last through Saturday before a slight chance of rain on Sunday could cool things down, although not by much.
Friday and Saturday highs are forecasted to be 32 and 31 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Phillips says London is approaching the hottest day of the year, and it won’t disappoint.
“If you looked at a graph and graphed London’s temperatures over the last 30 years, July 23 is where you’d reach the peak. That is the warmest day, statistically, in the London area.”
Farmers have also complained about the dry conditions which is wreaking havoc on crops.
Phillips says the low amount of precipitation is uncharacteristic.
“Precipitation has been half of what we had last year, about 300mm and we’ve had less than 150 so far in May, June, and July,” he said. “We’ve seen a couple of bouts of rain in July, which was almost a rescue rain for Londoners and growers. We still need a lot more.”
For those calling this stretch of high temperatures a “heat wave,” Phillips says the term is usually defined by three days of temperatures above 32 degrees, to which he says London has not yet had.
He added that August will be a continuation of the warm weather and that the weather won’t likely dramatically change.
Source: Inenews880
