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By Pat Hewitt, QMI Agency
The fall forecast is looking fabulous with warmer-than-normal temperatures across most of the country, according to Canada’s weather gurus.
“You stick a thermometer into Canada and it’s showing warm, warm, warm,” said Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips in an interview.
After the hottest July on record and a summer expected to be in the Top 3 warmest ever, all that stored-up heat isn’t going to evaporate quickly, he said. Some areas will still see temperatures topping 30 C in early autumn.
The Weather Network, which released its fall forecast on Monday, and Environment Canada, which will officially release its prediction on Sept. 1, both say above normal temperatures will mostly shine on for the next three months, although temperatures will seesaw from above to below normal at times.
“The afterglow of a scorching summer will mean a warm start to the season,” Chris Scott, director of meteorology with The Weather Network, said in a statement.
Southern Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes will see above-normal temperatures and normal precipitation but central Ontario residents should keep an umbrella with them as they will see higher amounts of rain, according to both The Weather Network and Environment Canada.
It will be a warmer autumn than usual in southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and northern Nunavut. The rest of the West will have a typical fall with temperatures near normal except for the northern coast of British Columbia, where residents may want to keep a sweater handy because it will actually be chillier there.
Coastal B.C. will also get less rain than average but most of Western Canada and the territories will get near-normal levels, The Weather Network added.
“Water temperatures in Atlantic Canada are three to four degrees warmer than they should be for this time of year, and that’s not going to go away,” said Phillips.
The warm ocean breezes and residual heat stored in land, lakes and rivers means the cool-off will be slower to come, he said.
“I’m not suggesting we’ll be barbecuing our Thanksgiving turkey in October,” Phillips said.
But Prairie farmers should make it through September without the threat of a frost, even though they’re already seeing single-digit low temperatures.
Though Phillips is already warning Canadians about winter, saying it’s unlikely we’ll have a repeat of last year when winter was cancelled.
“I would bet a good amount of money it will come sooner and be colder than last year,” said Phillips.
While it is expected to be an El Nino winter, which is traditionally warmer than average, it won’t feel like that to Canadians.
“We’ll be out of practice when those cold Arctic winds start blowing.”
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2012/08/27/20145706.html
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