Weather: A roller-coaster weather year for Ontario

Though temperatures and precipitation were near-normal averaged over the year, month by month the weather gave us a wild ride in 2009

by HENRY HENGEVELD

Mark Twain once noted that “if you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.” Twain would likely have said the same about Ontario last year!

Averaged over the entire year, 2009 was a rather “normal” year across the province. 

Temperatures in the Great Lakes Basin, for example, averaged only 0.1 C above the long-term mean, while total precipitation was 2.6 per cent above normal. Yet, month by month, the weather behaved like a roller coaster, fluctuating from one abnormal state to another, and back again.

Better Farming - March 2010