The heat is on across Canada, but will it persist through August?
As cooler weather waits in the wings across much of Northern Canada, there will be some significant breaks from the heat as we work through August
After a slow start to the season, summer finally hit its stride during the month of July. Will summer finish strong or will autumnal weather arrive early? For a look ahead at the month of August, please read on.
But first, here is a look back at what we saw across Canada during the month of July.
Much of the country saw near normal temperatures (indicated by white on the graphic below) or warmer than normal temperatures (indicated by the various shades of orange and red on the graphic below). Most of Northern Canada was exceptionally warm and eastern Newfoundland has also been very warm, but at least we have not seen the widespread dangerous heat that we saw last summer.
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During July, colder than normal temperatures were limited to areas from northern Ontario to Labrador. This is in contrast to June when cooler than normal temperatures dominated across most of Canada.
The pattern for early August will resemble what we have seen over the past few weeks, but with a couple of notable differences.
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Hot weather is expected to dominate from the southern Prairies to Atlantic Canada. However, a colder pattern is expected across most of Northern Canada and the close proximity of this cooler weather does present a risk to the forecast. Cooler weather could push south at times and briefly break up the heat across southern areas.
Also, we expect that B.C. will return to the cooler pattern that dominated for most of the summer prior to the heat wave that arrived for the final week of July.
As we progress through the second week of August, we expect that the focus of the hottest weather will start to shift west. This will result in temperatures trending closer to seasonal across Atlantic Canada with a few shots of cooler weather.
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For Ontario and Quebec, we have the potential for a more extended break from the heat during mid-August with a period of cooler weather that could last roughly 5-10 days. However, this will not signal an early end to summer weather as we expect that hot weather will spread back into the region at times during late August and into September.
Across the Prairies it looks like hot weather will dominate during mid- and late August, especially across southern parts of the region. However, we will likely see some breaks from the heat at times.
Across B.C., periods of warmer weather are expected during mid- and late August, but we do not expect that temperatures will get as hot as what we have seen during the final week of July.
For Northern Canada, summer is not over yet, but the overall pattern looks much cooler than what we saw during the first half of the season.
While August will bring a changeable pattern at times, here is how we expect the final numbers to look for the month as a whole.
For most of Canada this means that an abundance of very warm weather is still ahead with widespread near normal or above normal temperatures expected for August.
However, with widespread cooler than normal temperatures waiting in the wings across much of Northern Canada, there will be some significant breaks from the heat and even the potential for quick shots of cooler weather that would bring a hint of the next season to come.