Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
You have to go back to June 1930 to find a wetter June than the one we’ve just had. That year yielded 140 mm. of rain; this year reached 136 mm. With the exception of 10 mm. on the 6th and 14 mm. on the 11th, the precipitation all occurred in the last week. 43 mm. came down on the 29th alone.
These conditions were pretty well the same across Ontario, with the exception of the North West where near drought conditions prevailed. Not good for heavily forested land! The rest of Ontario had normal or well above normal rainfall just as we did. Some areas around Lake Erie got three times the normal.
It was also a warm month, 1.7C above the twentieth century mean. Like May, the warmest day, 28.9C, came near the start of the month and the coolest, 6.4C, near the end. Kind of the reverse of what you’d expect as we move into full summer. Multiple heat records were broken in Southern Ontario on the 4th and 5th.
After a succession of mild winters and now warming summers, we hardly need the tragedies in Lytton and across the West to convince even the most sceptical that climate change is upon us. Unfortunately, I fear the worst is yet to come. Certainly residents of the Peninsula need to be extra careful with fire – the danger is low at present, thanks to all that rain, but things can dry up in a hurry in July and August, and a Lytton-type fire would be a true disaster in an area with only one escape route.
So do take care!
