Sunny, Warm And Dry-Ish!
Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
Well, drier than usual but not truly dry, as anyone driving on Highway 6 in the early hours of the 20th can testify. A combination of rain, sleet and snow down the highway made driving quite hazardous. While the temperature in Tobermory was 1.3C, it fell just below zero a few kilometres south and the nasty mix began to freeze on the road.
But we got it easy compared to Highway 17 between Sudbury and Bracebridge where there was a multi-car pileup owing to icy bridges and poor visibility. The Bracebridge area reported 10 cms. of snow and power outages.
Meanwhile we flirted with frost on several occasions but 1.3C was the lowest we reached on Big Tub Harbour. Our highest temperature was 20.1C on the 24th, unusually late in the month. The mean temperature for October was 9.3C, a third of a degree above normal. It was also the second sunniest October I have recorded. There were seventeen truly sunny days, with the week of the 21st deserving the title of Second Summer. Every day that week was sunny with the mercury reaching the high teens.
Despite the precipitation I mentioned above, it was actually a fairly normal month at 78mm. Most fell on the 17th (26mm.) followed by the 12th (13mm). Southern Ontario generally was in the same ball park, but the North saw 15-20 cm. of snow despite periods of much warmer temperatures, particularly in the north-east. James Bay saw the mercury soar ten degrees above normal for several days in the middle of the month. As is becoming “normal”, temperature differentials from historic levels are growing more rapidly the further north one goes.
November has started out where October left off. We still haven’t had a full frost on Big Tub and the forecast suggests more sunny days and double-digit temperatures for the next week. Let’s hope!
