Another Warm Month
Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
Although it was nearly a degree Celsius above 20th century means, November was a relatively normal month. Our lowest temperature was -6.1C on the 28th and the warmest was 12.4C on the 17th. Precipitation was right on the average for the month at 65mm. Some of this was snow – the water content is measured by my station, not the depth which we have to shovel! Even so, there was little accumulation except where the snow plows left it piled up at the sides of the road.
While sunshine was about normal, we did get rain or snow on nearly half the days of the month. The 8th gave us the most – 16mm, which was a snow/rain mix. It thawed quickly as the mercury rose to 8.4C the next day.
The rest of Ontario was much like us – fairly normal with few temperature anomalies except in the North in the middle of the month. Areas like the Sault and Thunder Bay were as much as 2C above normal. This is consistent with the pattern of climate change where the North is warming faster than more southerly climes.
Tobermory once again escaped most of the heavy snow squalls that came off Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. On the 1st, Sarnia and London got blanketed with about 15cm. of heavy wet snow, accompanied by lightning and power cuts. On the 8th another storm paralyzed much of the province from Grand Bend, Kitchener-Waterloo, north to Timmins and east to Peterborough. Grand Bend alone got 35cm.
The wind blew most of the lake effect snow right over us to land on higher ground to our south or east- but if the winds had been less favourable we might have had a road closure on Highway 6 like we did last November.
December has started out a tad warmer than usual, and if the forecasts are right, we will have had the mercury approaching 10C by the time you read this. This is not indicative of a white Xmas!
2023 is shaping up to be not only one of the warmest years planet-wide, but for Tobermory too. Next month we’ll take a look at the year as a whole. Meanwhile, have a great holiday season with or without the white stuff!
