Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
This July, on Monday the 22nd, Earth experienced its hottest day that mankind has ever recorded. The mean temperature for the planet exceeded 17C, capping a 13 month streak of new records. This should be no surprise for us on the Saugeen Peninsula as our own climate records show month after month of warmer weather for the last year. While most of our extra warmth has occurred in the winter, our summer months are now a degree or so above 20th century means.
The hottest day was the 29th at 30.8C and the coolest 10.7C on the 1st. These figures may not be totally accurate because my weather station stopped recording for ten days in the middle of the month – possibly as result of the Microsoft glitch that affected much of the world. However, the records at Tobermory airport show figures very similar to those my station did manage to record.
There was a major variance in rainfall. The airport recorded an 11 mm. deluge on the 16th, but hardly any rain fell on Big Tub Harbour – the highly localized cell affected the Cape Hurd road and areas to the south but missed the village. The same applied to the Province as a whole – Pearson Airport set a new record of 215 mm with extensive flooding in Toronto while the North had much drier conditions than usual. Sault Ste. Marie had less than half its usual precipitation and Timmins had only one third.
Given the ravages of forest fires in the Western US and Canada, the exceptional warming in Antarctica and extremes being experienced in Siberia and our own Far North, I fear humanity is slowly but surely committing suicide. I don’t know how much the thousands of munitions launched in the Ukrainian and Middle Eastern conflicts have on climate change but it can’t be good – nor can the fact that oil companies are planning record numbers of new wells in the next few years.
And the world’s politicians are doing nothing of any real consequence.
Enough of my polemic except to say that August is forecast to be warmer than normal…
