Monday, June 02, 2014

Welcome to Meteorological Summer

Summer has arrived, at least according to meteorologists. Officially the summer solstice is June 21st, but the weather really starts to warm up quickly as of June 1st. Such was the case in Montreal this past weekend with much warmer temperatures in the middle 20's and total sunshine. It was a near perfect weekend. The good weather will continue into the start of the week, with even warmer temperatures today, along with an increase in humidity. We have an outside shot at the 1970 record high of 30C today, as we forecast highs near 29C (85F) for metro Montreal. Clouds will increase tonight, but it will remain warm and muggy with lows around 20C. Tuesday through the balance of this week will feature a very slow moving frontal system with cloudy skies along with frequent showers and thunderstorms. It will be warm on Tuesday in the middle 20's dropping to around 20C by Wednesday. The good news is that at this point next weekend looks sunny and warm.

With May over we can take a brief look at the numbers. It was a relatively warm month, even though it really did not feel like it. The average temperature was 14.4C at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, above the 20 year average of 13.4C. The highest temperature was 28.2C with the coolest 3.2C. Rainfall was measured at 95.6mm, the normal is 81.2mm. I had very similar stats at my home on L'Ile Perrot with extremes of 30.2C and 1.2C with an average of 14.4C and almost identical rainfall of 95.8mm.

Summer ice on Lake Superior. (NWS Marquette)
Here is some food for thought as we start summer, there is a blizzard warning in effect for Resolute, NWT today. At 6am this Monday, it was -4C, snowing with a visibility of 0.2km and 68km/h winds. The warning states to avoid all travel! On Lake Superior, ice continues to hug the southern shoreline. Despite the warmer weather huge chunks of ice are prevalent is many bays. The photos above are from the National Weather Service in Marquette Michigan.

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