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Sizzling temps roast Forks

Heat, humidity a true talker

By: Kevin Rollason

Posted: 08/11/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

The weather is so hot that even seeking refuge in cottage country isn't allowing Manitobans to beat the heat.

As well, the heat on Monday toppled two heat records, sort of broke another in Winnipeg, and left one part of our city the hottest place to be in the country.

Dale Marciski, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said on Tuesday that while the mercury soared to 32.9 C at Winnipeg's airport weather monitoring station on Monday, when the temperature was combined with the humidex it felt like the thermometer was at 41 C.

But Marciski said if you'd driven out to Gimli or Victoria Beach, you wouldn't have been any further ahead.

Marciski said the temperature in Gimli hit 30.7 C on Monday.

He said the other side of the lake was even hotter -- cottagers in Victoria Beach were experiencing humidex readings of 42 C on Monday.

"The wind was blowing from the land instead of the lake," Marciski said.

Other places on Monday that hit 42 C thanks to the humidex were Portage la Prairie, Carman and Gretna. Close calls at 41 C with the humidex were The Forks, Winnipeg's Airport, Delta Marsh, Emerson and Morden.

Marciski said heat records were set in Pinawa, which reached 31.4 C on Monday, breaking the 31 C it reached on that day in 2003, and in Melita, which at 31 C squeaked by the old 30.9 C record also set in 2003.

But Marciski said Winnipeg only set a record at 32.9 C if you only look at one of the weather stations.

"The old record was 32.8 in 1940 at the airport, but if you look at St. John's College, where weather was monitored from 1872 to 1938, on Aug. 9, in 1929, we had 36.7," he said.

"But The Forks' temperature was 34.8 (on Monday) and that was the hottest spot in the country."

Other communities which came oh so close to setting heat records were Gimli, Fisher Branch, Gretna and Pilot Mound.

Marciski said while temperatures were still hot on Tuesday -- with a second day of humidex warnings -- he didn't expect any heat records to fall.

And if Environment Canada predictions hold out to be true, by Saturday Winnipeg may set the opposite record -- the coldest Aug. 14.

Marciski said the temperature for Saturday is currently predicted to be 19 C, not that far from the record lowest high temperature that day of 17.2 C in 1968.

Marciski said Winnipeg is currently running below average with the number of days the mercury has reached 30 C. Marciski said the city has had eight days of temperatures in the plus 30s, up from four the entire summer last year. Marciski said the average Winnipeg summer has 13.5 days of temperatures in the 30s.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 11, 2010 B2

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