Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
Last month I remarked that climate change was becoming evident in the summer as well as the winter, where it has been obvious for some time. August added to that observation by being 1.9C above 20th century means – one of the warmest I’ve recorded.
Our highest temperature was 32.2C on the 11th, narrowly beating the previous day’s 30.5C. For five days, from the 8th to the 13th, the mercury never went below 20C. Unfortunately those days were very humid too. Our coolest night was 10.6C on the 27th, when it felt as if Fall were imminent
It was also a drier than usual month; just 50mm of rain against the average of 78mm and a far cry from the 154mm we got last August. The wettest day was the 28th when a cold front moved in and provided 20mm of much needed moisture – and an end to the warm weather we’d been enjoying.
As might be expected from the stats above, it was the second sunniest August in the last ten years. There were just two truly cloudy days and four that were about 50% sunny.
Interestingly, our higher-than-normal temperatures were not shared by the rest of the Province which experienced near-normal warmth – although Cornwall set a new record of 36C. I attribute our difference to the very warm lake water brought on by the aforementioned sunshine. Not sure if that’s true, but it was certainly welcome!
