NOW, THIS IS MORE LIKE THE SUMMER WE WANT

MUSKOKA — Climate-concerned Canadians can expect a break now.

Environment Canada says after a great start to summer — including Saturday’s sizzler — a return to more seasonal temperatures is here.

In their monthly wrap-up, they say July is climatologically the warmest month of the year.

So, inevitably, it will be warm, understated Gerald Chang of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

And isn’t that what you you want?

He says after the first truly summer-like (above-normal) temperatures during the first week of the month, we will most likely see a return to normal temperatures by mid-month.

As for rain, Chang says in northwestern Ontario several months of dry weather have resulted in the inevitable wildfires experienced last summer around Parry Sound.

Around Lake Superior this week the forecast suggests a continuation of below-normal precipitation, while the rest of Ontario will have normal precipitation is expected.

With the below-normal temperatures Ontarians experienced in April and May, it felt like the cool temperature trend continued into June.

However, temperatures in June were in fact within the normal range for most of Ontario, while portions of the province experienced slightly cooler temperatures with anomalies of -1 to -2°C.

On a daily basis, temperatures hovered around normal values, with a greater number of days on the cool side of normal values.

The first few days of last month, June 3-4, temperatures were much below to extremely below normal values (anomalies up to -10°C) in southern, eastern and central Ontario.

Then as the second week began around June 7-8, northern Ontario had a short-lived warm spell, where temperatures for that period can be qualified as much above or even extremely above normal values (anomalies up to +12°C).

The final week of the month, the thermometer finally read on the warm side of normal for the most part.

Dry conditions (anomalies of -25 to -75%) continued in northwestern Ontario in June.

Conditions from Huron County through central and eastern Ontario were near normal values.

Wetter-than-normal conditions were observed in southwestern, northeastern Ontario and portions of the Far North.

Contributing to those amounts, a low pressure system brought significant rain to the Bruce Peninsula and portions of northeastern Ontario beginning June 9 until June 11, resulting in total rainfall amounts upwards of 30 mm in Moosonee and close to 50 mm in North Bay.

Observations compared to the 1981-2010 normals for June 2019 (see Appendix for a geographic representation of all of Ontario) City	Mean Temp (obs/normal) (°C)	Difference (°C)	Rain (obs/normal) (mm)	Snow (obs/normal) (cm)	Total Precip. (obs/normal) (mm)
Kenora	17.2 / 16.8	0.4	65.1 / 118.6	0.0 / 0.1	65.1 / 118.7
Moosonee	11.5 / 12.2	-0.7	/ 71.5	/ 0.2	78.2 / 71.7
Ottawa Airport	17.3 / 18.5	-1.2	111.4 / 92.8	0.0 / 0.0	111.4 / 92.8
Sudbury	15.3 / 16.5	-1.2	89.3 / 80.3	0.0 / 0.0	89.3 / 80.3
Thunder Bay1	14.0 / 14.0	0.0	86.0 / 85.7	0.0 / 0.0	86.0 / 85.7
Toronto Pearson	18.2 / 18.6	-0.4	108.6 / 71.5	0.0 / 0.0	108.6 / 71.5
Windsor	19.2 / 20.5	-1.3	/ 86.1	/ 0.0	96.5* / 86.1

A low pressure system tracking across eastern Ontario and western Quebec trailed a cold front by the end of the day which crossed eastern Ontario.

The airmass was still sufficiently unstable that towards the end of the afternoon, a few vigorous thunderstorms developed rapidly over the Gatineau region of Quebec, extending southward just to the Ottawa River.

The southernmost storm triggered a tornado which began over Orleans and tracked eastward along the Ottawa River before dissipating over the Quebec side of the river just northwest of Cumberland.

This tornado caused roof and siding damage to many homes and structures in Orleans, although thankfully causing no serious injuries.

It was rated an Enhanced Fujita scale 1 (EF-1) tornado, with maximum winds between 150 and 170 km/h. The same storm spawned a second tornado further east, near Clarence Creek, which caused some farm building damage and was also rated an EF-1 tornado.

June 4: Heavy thunderstorms in northwestern Ontario

Thunderstorms rolled through parts of northwestern Ontario, including Thunder Bay and Fort Frances.

Multiple reports of localized flooding and road washouts led to road closures.

An underpass in Fort Frances was completely flooded.

Lakehead Region Conservation Authority had to issue a flood warning due to continued high water levels on the Whitefish River and area tributaries.

And 32 mm of rain was reported in Thunder Bay but a gauge in Nolalu, just southwest of Kakabeka Falls reported over 90 mm.

Forest fires continue to rage in northern Ontario

A dry May in northwestern Ontario had contributed to a forest fire that grew quickly near Pikangikum and the community had to declare an emergency.

Heavy smoke from the fire was carried west, affecting the Pikangikum First Nation; a special air quality statement for the area was in effect for nearly two weeks. 2500 people were evacuated for the entire event from the end of May into the beginning of June and they were finally repatriated by June 17.

Two more fires became a concern during the month: One near Pickle Lake (started on June 6) and another one in Gogama.

The one near Pickle Lake damaged a Bell Canada cable, leading to outages to the landline telephone service and internet services being intermittent in the town. The fire caused localized loss of power.

In Gogama, an emergency was declared due to the potential threat posed by the fire.

Local flooding in Essex County and along lower Great Lakes

High water levels in the Great Lakes continued to plague many communities along the shoreline. Lakes Superior, St. Clair, Erie, and Ontario were at record levels at the beginning of the month.

Around the third weekend of the month (June 14 and 15), southwestern Ontario received up to 35 mm of rain. Combined with high water levels and waves due to strong winds along the shores, the rain prompted St. Clair Region, Lower Thames Valley, Essex Region Conservation Authorities to issue flood warnings.

Some shoreline protections suffered damage and erosion occurred. Flooding on roads along the shoreline led to road closures. In addition, ongoing flooding on Lake Ontario shoreline was noted, particularly at the Scarborough Bluffs on the east end of Toronto and in Brighton.

By the end of the month, Lake Huron-Michigan also reached its record high along with the other lakes.