Weather

Records were broken for precipitation in many parts of Ontario. But perhaps most worrying is that Arctic ice is disappearing much faster than anticipated

by HENRY HENGEVELD

David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist, has selected the heavy rains and snowfall of 2008 as the most significant weather story for Ontario for the year. 

That shouldn’t come as a big surprise to any of us. Pearson International Airport, for example, normally gets a total amount of about 793 millimetres of precipitation per year. Its previous record high, established in 1977, was 971 millimetres. This year, it reached 1,050 millimetres – 32 per cent higher than the average, and eight per cent above the previous record.

When forecasts change from one month to the next, Ontarians are entitled to ask why. The answer lies in the variables used in the Environment Canada climate models

by HENRY HENGEVELD

Recent seasonal forecasts issued by Environment Canada remind us that we should still be cautious in using them as a planning tool.  

Our changing climate is about far more than just rising temperature and altered precipitation patterns

by HENRY HENGEVELD

Canada’s cloud cover is changing. There are more high-level cirrus clouds, more cumulus-type convective clouds, and less low-level stratus type clouds – and that affects our temperature and precipitation.

These surprising results emerge from a new study published by Ewa Milewska, an Environment Canada research climatologist, in a recent issue of the Canadian scientific journal Atmosphere-Ocean. 

The series of tropical storms that ravaged the Caribbean and the U.S. seaboard this fall caused hundreds of deaths and many billons n damages. Canada wasn’t spared, with torrential rainstorms from Windsor to the Atlantic provinces

by HENRY HENGEVELD

After relatively calm seasons in 2006 and 2007, this year Atlantic hurricanes have returned with a vengeance. 

The first four tropical storms of the season passed with relatively little impact on land areas. Hurricane Bertha did reach Category 3 and lasted an unusually long 17 days before it dissipated in the mid Atlantic – unusual for an early season storm. However, the only effect on land areas was a glancing blow to Bermuda in its dying days.

This summer’s rainfall broke the previous record by more than 10 per cent.
But despair not. Projections are for a drier than normal fall

by HENRY HENGEVELD

The summer of 2007 set a new central Ontario record for minimum precipitation. This past winter almost set a new record for maximum seasonal snowfall. Now, already by mid-August, a new record has been set for maximum total precipitation for the June through August summer season.

Welcome to Ontario’s erratic weather!

Recent studies suggest that the droughts of the past decade may have been at least as bad as those of the 1930s, one reason driving a new, co-ordinated national research program into these punishing weather events

by HENRY HENGEVELD

The seasonal forecast for this summer, issued by Environment Canada at the end of May, projected a warm summer across the country. Only the Prairies were expected to have above normal precipitation to help offset the increased water stress this heat is likely to generate. To date, this prediction has not rung true. Still, in the long term, droughts have taken a toll.

One reason may be that research scientists are poor communicators, who talk in language that their peers may understand but the public does not

by HENRY HENGEVELD

At 8 pm on March 29, my wife and I lit a few candles, then turned off all the lights in our house. One by one, most of our neighbours did the same. Earth Hour 2008 had arrived! 
Shortly before nine, we stepped out onto our front steps to look at the stars, something we can’t do most nights, since they are usually dimmed or invisible because of the city’s excessive light pollution.

We were not alone. Close to 900,000 other Canadians and 150 municipalities had indicated intentions of observing Earth Hour. Around the world, another 100 million people were expected in join in.

For parts of southern Ontario, the winter of 2008 brought the second-highest snowfalls on record, causing burnout to road and highway crews. And, paradoxically, it may just be another product of global warming

by HENRY HENGEVELD

When I tell my grandchildren about the bad snow years of the 1950s – the years when they needed bulldozers to push the snow banks into the fields because the plows couldn’t get through anymore – they sort of smile at me. They think I’m pulling their leg.

About 100 tornadoes a year strike Canada – mostly in southern Ontario and the Prairies. Fortunately, today’s improved forecasting is giving those in their path precious minutes to take shelter

by HENRY HENGEVELD

This past winter, North Americans had another reminder of how destructive and terrifying some weather events can be.

On Feb. 5, a massive, humid air mass from the Gulf of Mexico worked its way up the southeast of the United States, only to run head on into another air mass – this one cold and dry – working its way south-eastward through the central American plains.

Last year, the already shrinking summer Arctic ice diminished even more dramatically, as did the Greenland ice sheet, making it Environment Canada’s choice for number one weather story of the year

by HENRY HENGEVELD

The world’s climate number crunchers – including Environment Canada’s David Phillips and Bob Whitewood – once again spent the early days of January in putting together annual weather statistics for 2007. The results that emerged from their analyses included a lot of the same old, same old – but also provided a few interesting anecdotes that will undoubtedly become part of our climate lore.