Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
“Normal” because the mean temperature was just 0.8C above the long-term average; “weird” because the end of the month saw snow in many regions of Southern Ontario. Thankfully the Northern Saugeen Peninsula was spared. Our warmest day was the 20th when the mercury clawed its way up to 27.3C: the coolest it shrank to was our last frost of the season, -1.2C, on the first of the month.
The opening third of the month was downright cold – most days didn’t even reach double digits and it wasn’t until the 12th that we got temperatures in the teens. But then it really warmed up with days in the high teens and twenties, though the lows were often still in single digits. The warm spell ended abruptly on the 27th when we once again struggled with the threat of frost. On the 30th we dropped to 3.2C.
Like the rest of Ontario, it was a dry month and weather forecasters began using the word drought. Here on Big Tub we got 46 mm. of rain against a norm of 69 mm. Virtually all our precipitation fell in the first week. From the ninth until the end of the month we had only two days with rain, a mere 6 mm. on each occasion. This dry spell lasted until June 6th.
One has to be careful with statistics. An average temperature of, say, 10 degrees could be made up of a high of 18C and a low of 2C, or it could be a high of 12C and a low of 8C. Both ranges give the same result but this can be misleading. This is what we have seen this Spring – low temperatures generally not as low as normal, but high temperatures lower than normal. This compressed range of temperature probably delighted gardeners because our spring flowers lasted so much longer without hot days to wilt them. Our daffodils flowered for an extraordinary 5 weeks – and some even longer.
June has started out quite warm and I hope it remains that way!
