Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
The month was warmer than normal at a mean of 19.4C. (The 20th century mean was 18.3C.) This is in keeping with July having been the warmest month man has recorded on our planet. Our highest temperature was 31.7C on the 4th and the lowest, 11.7C, occurred in the early morning of the 12th. That day was the only one in the month where the afternoon high failed to exceed 20C.
The most notable event was the rainstorm on the 26th when we were inundated with 106 mm. in four hours. At one point the rate was 47 mm. per hour – truly typhoon weather! It is a record for my weather station; the previous one-day total was 80 mm. It was very localized – the airport “only” recorded 80 mm. while some areas to the south got nothing. If you checked the weather radar that day you’d have seen the “red spot” stalled over the town of Tobermory.
As a result, July was the second wettest I have recorded at 192 mm. vs 214 mm. in 2021. Interestingly, nearly all our rainiest months since 1996 have occurred in the last ten years. More evidence of climate change?
Elsewhere in the Province conditions were similar. Ottawa, Petawawa, Oakville had temperatures exceeding 34C, while Windsor and Ridgetown recorded 43C on the 28th. Likewise, July was much wetter than normal in southern Ontario, many locations receiving 250% or more of their usual precipitation. London, for example, got 215 mm. The North on the other hand had its third consecutive month of lower than normal rainfall – not good for a forest fire prone area.
There were a number of tornadoes in eastern Ontario on the 13th that caused major damage but, fortunately, only minor injuries. On the 20th major thunderstorms brought baseball-sized hail to southwestern areas including more tornadoes and downbursts. Winds reached 117 kmh/hr in Sarnia. On the 28th Ottawa got hit again with damaging hail and funnel clouds. How often did tornadoes occur in Ontario prior to this century?
August started out like July, but as I write this on Civic Holiday Monday we’re getting a major windstorm with copious rainfall and a power cut. More on this next month!
