CINDY DAY: The numbers don’t lie — it was a dry, hot July

For those who don't like the heat, there is often relief to be found at one of our many coastal beach. A cool fog was rolling in at Rainbow Haven Beach near Dartmouht, Nova Scotia, when Warren Hoeg snapped this fun photo! - Contributed

Well that’s pretty much a wrap on July. What a month!

The other day I was talking with a friend about the weather – imagine – and she said, “I can’t remember ever experiencing such a beautiful summer.”

I thought that was an interesting comment given the fact we had two devastating frosts in June, flood waters were rising in low-lying communities and furnaces were still coming on well past the middle of the month. I remember headlines about summer missing us entirely. We’re all singing a different tune now; some wells are going dry and heat warnings have us darting from one air-conditioned building to the next.

Let’s have a look:

Without exception, June was wet and cold across the Maritime provinces; Western Newfoundland and Labrador were cool, but not wet. Corner Brook and Labrador didn’t quite get half the normal rainfall for the month.

July was dry and warm across all of Atlantic Canada. Some of the numbers are amazing:

City	June 2018 mean temperature (C)	Normal June mean	July 2018 mean	Normal July mean
Halifax	13.6	15.1	20.8	18.8
Sydney	10.8	13.2	19.9	17.9
Charlottetown	12.7	14.5	21	19.3
Fredericton	14.5	16.2	21	19.3
Corner Brook	9.4	12.8	17.6	17.3
St. John's	8	10.9	17.4	15.8
Labrador City	5.6	10.3	19.3	13.8

In terms of temperature, one of the extremes was Labrador City. The mean monthly temperature came in at more than 4.5 degrees Celsisus below normal in June; that was followed by a mean monthly temperature of 19.3 in July – 5.5 degrees above normal.

City	June 2018 rainfall (mm)	June normal	July 2018	July normal
Halifax	178	96	55	96
Sydney	153	97	36	89
Charlottetown	152	99	24	80
Fredericton	96	82	75	88
Corner Brook	34	87	20	92
St. John's	139	98	65	92
Labrador City	35	81	28	114

Climate change is real, my friends.

Here's another look:

Without exception, June was wet and cold across the Maritime provinces; Western Newfoundland and Labrador were cool, but not wet. July was dry and warm across all of Atlantic Canada

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Cindy Day is the chief meteorologist for SaltWire Network.