Weather

Well, anyone who lives in the Waterloo Region will be able to tell you that we had a very hot August in 2010.

Now it is official: this was the hottest August in 50 years.

And we can expect higher than usual temperatures all the way through November too. The BBQ is still out and we hope for a few outdoor BBQs in the coming month or two.

Can't complain about that ...

Southern, Central and Eastern Ontario is under a smog and heat alert. Temperatures are in the 30s Celsius, and smog from the USA is passing by.

Toronto issued a heat alert as temperatures are expected to reach 30C today.

While Ontario suffers a heat wave for three days in a row, Calgary is expecting a snow storm with 10 to 20 cms!

This spring is unusually early and warm. Today the temperature was around 26C, and that is not the first time this season.

The leaves are already sprouting from buds when it is barely mid April. One Japanese Maple tree has already bloomed and shed its flowers. Another silver maple tree is in bloom today. Our neighbor's magnolia trees has flowers that will open in a few days now. The lilacs are starting to show leaves as well.

All the above usually happens in the first week of May in other years, so we are 3 week early!

Over the last week the weather has been pleasant, with above zero temperature in midday, but still goes below zero over night.

Today it is March 8th, 2010, and the temperature outside is 9 degrees Celsius above zero in Kitchener/Waterloo.

What is better is that the next 3 days we are expecting double digit temperatures with tomorrow a high of 11C, and 10C on the 2 days after that.

Sure, it will go back to seasonal temperatures eventually, around 1 or 2 above zero midday. And perhaps we will get a snow storm or two.

This is the weather in Ontario, Canada ...

As expected, the record from 1932 snowfall (245.3 cm) was broken this winter (246 cm), and winter is not even over yet.

Even the amount of snow for one day was 32 cm on Saturday, topping the previous record in Jan 22, 1966 of 30.5 cm.

The total amount of snow from Friday/Saturday was 38 cm, but with wind and drift, it was waist deep or even chest deep in many places.

With February not even half gone, the Greater Toronto Area has received 70 centimeters of snow, 3 times the normal for that period.

Yesterday we had a major snow storm that dumped 20 cm of snow. Not the first one that does that. Several other storms have done the same earlier.

True to weather specialists forecasts, winter of 2007-2008 is more snowy than the last 15 years. We already had two big snow storms here in Southern Ontario, the last just today (January 1, 2008). Atlantic Canada had more storms than here.

Environment Canada says that winter 2007-2008 will be the coldest winter in 15 years.