Cloud funk got you down, Ontario? There is (sun)light at end of the tunnel
Hold on, southern Ontario, there is a yellow lining among these dark, grey clouds that have been hanging over the region for nearly a month.
The lack of sunshine in southern Ontario in recent weeks hasn't gone unnoticed, if you've been keeping track, as well.
The last sunny skies during the day? Dec. 29, 2022. The last mostly sunny day? Dec. 21 for Toronto.
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London, Ont., you are even worse. Dec. 4 was the last primarily sunny day. Yes, you read that right. That's 34 days ago, or over 9 per cent of an entire year.
We're in such a cloud funk it's hard to see any sunlight at the end of the tunnel, but it's coming for some. In fact, a bit of sunshine did appear late Saturday afternoon for some areas in southern Ontario.
Here's the scoop for Toronto, and the final satellite shot of mostly sunny skies, captured on Dec. 21 by NASA's Terra/MODIS satellite.
Why has it been so cloudy?
Well, it's been mild, and milder air holds more moisture. Pair that with a low-winter sun angle, and it's nearly impossible to mix out the surface moisture throughout the day. It's a pattern where we can get an occasional sunny afternoon, but warm air aloft, long nights and cool ground temperatures make winter our cloudiest season.
If we'd be dealing with more frigid, Arctic air throughout December and January, we'd have had substantially more sunshine.
We can't promise you full sunshine on Sunday and Monday, as that won't be the case, but there will be periods of substantial sun -- the most in at least a few weeks for some cities across southern Ontario.
Let's hope the sun overdelivers and doesn't underperform, and hope the mix of sun and clouds gives you the much-needed vitamin D boost.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has certainly taken stock on how dreary it has been lately at Pearson International Airport.
As previously mentioned, to counter the number of gloomy days we've had, southern Ontario has been mostly on the warm side of temperatures since early December -- with the exception of the cold snap over Christmas and the days leading up to the holidays.
But a few days of colder, more seasonal weather is expected mid and late this week.
No significant systems are in sight, but forecasters will keep an eye on an active storm track well south of the border to see if a disturbance late this week will take a more northerly track, possibly impacting southern parts of the region.
No consistent cold weather is in sight through at least the next two weeks.
With files from Tyler Hamilton, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.
Thumbnail courtesy of Unsplash.