Thursday, September 23, 2010

Fall 2010 is here


The full harvest moon shines behind Michigan's Ludington Lighthouse (Photograph by Jeff Kiessel, Ludington Daily News/AP)

Fall arrived last evening at 11:09, with very little fanfare and under a full harvest moon as we said goodbye to one of the warmest summers recorded here in eastern North America. September did not disappoint in keeping up with the warm summer. Our average normal high in Montreal is 19.7C and to date we are running at 21.6C. We have had a few cool nights lately and some scattered frost, but for the most part overnight lows have been warmer as well at 11.8C compared to the normal of 9.4C. It has been dry with only 50.8mm of rain to date, well below the normal of 92.6mm. Most of that 50mm fell on only two days. The colors are beginning to pop as the reds on the maples have appeared after the cool longer nights this past weekend.

Post tropical storm Igor continues to meander around Baffin Island. The storm continues to produce very strong winds of over 100km/h across far northern Quebec and Ungava Bay with warnings in place for those regions. The clean up continues in Newfoundland with early damage estimates in excess of $25 million. Damage is widespread including at least two dozen communities cut off by road and bridge washouts.

Meanwhile forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are watching an area of disturbed weather in the Caribbean seas southeast of the Yucatan region. A NOAA recon flight will investigate the system later today, and it could become a depression. Most previous storms have been well out in the Atlantic, so this when bears watching as a possible threat to the US Gulf Coast.

Above right: Flooding in Newfoundland from Igor (Globe & Mail)

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