With the official start of summer just a couple of days away, Environment Canada predicts that we will have a “beer-drinking climate” with a warmer-than-usual summer, but storms could arise.
“Our models show that for most of the country, we can put the ‘warmer-than-normal’ label almost side by side,” Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips told CTV News Channel on Sunday.
“Certainly, for most of Canada, in the future, there will be more time to drink beer, beach time and I think Canadians appreciate a summer like this.”
We are already seeing some of this warmer climate across Canada. There are currently heat warnings in southern Manitoba, and in particular parts of northern Ontario near the Manitoba border.
The Manitoba Marathon was scheduled to be held this Sunday, but shortly after the race began, temperatures rose above 30 degrees and organizers suspended it due to safety concerns.
Manitoba “wants it to dry up,” Phillips said, as the province has recently struggled with flooding, “and is beginning to do so.” But the heat jump in this region right now is spectacular.
“Winnipeg could see 37 degrees today, which is 13 degrees warmer than it normally would be, and I think it’s warmer than at any time last year,” Phillips said.
Throughout the spring, Canada has seen a wide range of climates.
“Last week, we saw a total snowfall of 30 cm of snow in the Rocky Mountains, we saw a threatening rain in parts of southern Alberta. […] it was kind of good news for farmers and producers. And certainly here in the east, about a month ago we had this windstorm […] this was one of the most expensive storms in Canadian history, and then last week we had storms and almost accidents and Montreal received large amounts of rain and stagnant water, ”Phillips said.
“So we’ve had our weird, wild and extreme part of the weather, but I think overall this spring has been a little cool and humid in most parts of Canada.”
He added that if we look globally, Canada has been “one of the coolest areas in the world” during this first half of 2022.
This prepares us for a warmer summer.
But one of the big atypical ones of this stifling summer is British Columbia, he said.
“The models have improved a bit to give them more of a summer than they looked maybe just a week ago,” he said. “But [it looks] as if they had a kind of seasonal weather, the kind of climate of golden streaks: neither too hot nor too cold. “
Last year, BC had one of the worst wildfire seasons the province has ever seen. At the time of 2021, there had been 277 fires in the province, compared to the 152 forest fires that have occurred so far in 2022. More than 8,700 square kilometers of land were burned in British Columbia in 2021. In addition, a dangerous “heat dome” in late June and early July 2021 caused four times the number of deaths the region typically sees during this time, with 619 deaths due to extreme heat. A cooler summer this year will probably be a welcome change.
Phillps added that if things heat up too quickly in BC, we could go the opposite of fires: flooding.
“I’m worried that if it gets too hot, too fast, they’ll have real flood situations, because they have a very high layer of snow at medium and high elevations in the mountains, and if you go from mud to sweat, well, all of a sudden this snow is melting, and you will have rivers that will get fat and streams, and there could surely be flooding, ”he said.
This forecast for a warmer summer for Canada in general, with BC looking to be cooler than the rest of the country, echoes The Weather Network’s official summer forecast, which came out in late May and predict warmer weather with chances of storms.
Phillips noted that whenever there is a lot of heat and humidity accompanied, we have the conditions for a storm to occur.
“We certainly don’t have a forecast for a season in terms of storms,” he said. “We only know that when the warm weather comes with high humidity, you will have storms in Canada, so always watch out for the sky.”
It seems that while summer is coming with some great beach days across the country, it can be smart to have a safety plan in case of rain.