Winnipeg’s hottest summer in 30 years

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/07/2018 (2923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been so hot this summer, chickens have been laying hard-boiled eggs. It’s been so hot, corn has been popping on the stalk.

Bad jokes aside, the good news is while the first half of the summer of 2018 has been Winnipeg’s hottest in 30 years, the second half of the summer is expected to continue to be fabulous but with temperatures slightly less sizzling.

There have been 15 days of temperatures above 30 C in May (six), June (four) and up to July 20 (five) when normally there would be a total of six days above 30 C in that span, said David Phillips, an Environment Canada senior climatologist.

“I looked at what a warm day in Winnipeg would be, a day when the max temperature is 25 C, and there’s been 48 of those when normally for this period (May 1-July 20), you would have 28,” Phillips said.

“You’ve had 20 more days where people have been able to say, ‘Gee it’s a wonderful day.’ A day above 30 C, some people might find it too warm.”

Phillips said Environment Canada doesn’t keep track of durations of weather but said it’s been “a wonderful late spring and delightful first half of summer.”

He pointed out that last summer in this region was one of the best in Canada, and the summer of 2018 has already been “more spectacular.”

“Every month has been warmer than normal, and if you like your summers warm, it’s been that way,” he said.

With 10 days left to measure in July, there could still be more than the 15 days already that have been above 30 C.

From May 1 to July 31 over the five years from 2013 to 2017, there were a total of 16 days above 30 C.

!function(e,t,n,s){var i=”InfogramEmbeds”,o=e.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],d=/^http:/.test(e.location)?”http:”:”https:”;if(/^/{2}/.test(s)&&(s=d+s),window[i]&&window[i].initialized)window[i].process&&window[i].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var a=e.createElement(t);a.async=1,a.id=n,a.src=s,o.parentNode.insertBefore(a,o)}}(document,”script”,”infogram-async”,”https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js”);

Phillips said the warmer-than-normal temperatures are expected to continue but not be as hot as they have been.

“We think that’s the flavour of what we’ll see right through to Labour Day,” Phillips said. “So people who have left their holidays to the end, they’re saying, ‘Oh no, there’s a certain allotment of these good days and they’re used up.’ Well, no. What you see is what you’re going to get.”

He said the average temperature so far this July has been 28 C while the average is usually 25.9 C. He noted people have had a bit of a reprieve from the heat most nights as the average night temperature this July has been 14 C with the normal being 13.5 C.

“What you’ve seen is temperatures warmer than normal, and they’re very close to being the record warm,” he said.

Rob Paola, a retired Environment Canada meteorologist who continues his pursuit of climatology on his website robsobs.ca and Twitter @robsobs, added the first half of summer 2018 has been Winnipeg’s hottest on record since 1988.

Within the meteorological measure for the first half of summer from June 1 to July 15, Winnipeg’s average temperature has been 20.2 C. It was 21.4 C in the first half of the summer of 1988.

“It’s the sixth warmest on record so far and warmest since 1988,” Paola said, noting that record keeping began in 1872. “Going into early August, it looks like temperatures are going to be averaging closer to normal, mid-20s for highs, mid-teens for lows. Still nice, but it doesn’t look the second half of the summer is going to be as hot as the first half was.”

Phillips said it’s worth noting the heat so far hasn’t brought a lot of violent weather, which can happen when there is intense heat followed by cool fronts moving in.

“The moisture has been down a bit in July, only about 32 millimetres of rain. June had 69 mm where normally you have 90. In May, you had 74 when normally, you had 57,” Phillips said.

“What you’ve had is warmer than normal and you haven’t really made up the deficit in precipitation but there’s been enough there to keep things growing but not so much you’ve got pools of water where mosquitoes can breed.”

Winnipeg’s mosquito trap counts have been pleasantly low with City of Winnipeg data showing a citywide average of five on July 20.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca