Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Possible frost this weekend

The forecasts have been bouncing around in the last few days, but now both Environment Canada and The Weather Network have us going below zero on Sunday morning and getting pretty close on Saturday morning.

As the average first frost date is October 1st in the area, this year could be pretty much on schedule.

Final results for the Summer of 2010 poll

(just wanted to put these into a post before I took down the survey)

Final results of the Summer of 2010 poll:

Great (I loved every day of the hot weather): 77 (43%)

Good (A few more cool days in July and August would have been nice): 56 (31%)

OK (A little too much heat, but I'll take it over the cold): 15 (8%)

Bad (My air conditioner got a workout): 12 (6%)

Terrible (Way too hot, I never wanted to go outside): 19 (10%)

Total votes: 179

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Summer 2010 Summary

A hot summer with total precipitation on the high end of the average range

It was a very hot summer, almost 2 degrees above average, making it the hottest summer since 2005. But of course without these last 3 relatively cool weeks at the end, it would have been even warmer overall. There was a big difference between the daytime highs and nighttime lows, the daily maximum temperatures were only a degree above average while the daily minimum temperatures were a full 2.5 degrees above.

As far as precipitation, we had 314.6 mm compared to an average of 274.0 mm, this is still within the average range, albeit on the high end. The rain was not evenly distributed as 4 days accounted for over half of the season's precipitation.

In the UW weather station Summer 2010 poll, it seemed that a lot of people liked the weather we had during the summer. The results were that 42% called it great, 31% good, 8% OK, 6% bad, and 10% called it a total washout. Thanks to the 179 people who entered the poll.

Interestingly, although last summer was very different weather-wise, the poll results this year were pretty much exactly the same as last year. Does this mean that certain people will always love or hate the summer no matter what the weather? And that there are the same number of people that like the hotter summers as like the cooler summers?

Summary for Summer 2010:
Maximum Temperature 33.1 °C
Minimum Temperature 4.0 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 25.3 °C (Long term average 24.2 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 14.6 °C (Long term average 12.2 °C)
Total Precipitation 311.4 mm (Long term average 274.0 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)




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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What did you think of the summer of 2010?

As summer is coming to end next week it is time for the end of summer poll.

If it is before September 22nd you can vote at the top of the UW weather station blog in the five standard categories:

Great (I loved every day of the hot weather)

Good (A few more cool days in July and August would have been nice)

OK (A little too much heat, but I'll take it over the cold)

Bad (My air conditioner got a workout)

Terrible (Way too hot, I never wanted to go outside)

Monday, September 13, 2010

Mystery tower question

I had a question about a red and white tower about 30 m tall near RIM park in north-east Waterloo.

Apparently (I have not seen it) there is an anemometer on it and the person would like to know if the data are available.

Please leave a comment on the blog if you have any information.

Monday, September 6, 2010

A wet start to the month

As pointed out by an anonymous commenter on the blog, we had more rain during a 24 hour period between the 2nd and the 3rd of September (51.9 mm) than we did for the entire month of August (36.2 mm).

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

August 2010 Summary

The hottest August in 50 years with less than half of the average precipitation

With an overall temperature over 2.5 degrees above average it was the hottest August since 1959. There was little relief from the heat as well, given that there were no days that were significantly (ie. more than 5 degrees) below average.

We still have not seen a month this year that has been below average, making this the warmest first 8 months of the year since 1998, which was the hottest year on record in the area.

It was a dry month with only 36.2 mm of precipitation when the average for August is 87.0 mm. Apart from a couple of days with around 10 mm, the rest of the month's precipitation were just a few sprinkles here and there.

Of course a dry month is going to also put us further behind for the year. So far we have had 534.2 mm in 2010, compared to the average of 596.0 mm at the end of August.


Summary for August 2010:
Maximum Temperature 33.1 °C
Minimum Temperature 7.5 °C
Average Daily High Temperature 26.8 °C (Long term average 24.7 °C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 15.9 °C (Long term average 12.6 °C)
Total Precipitation 36.2 mm (Long term average 87.0 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)



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