Monday, June 25, 2018
Ric Soulis (1949-2018)
I am saddened to share the news that Professor Ric Soulis passed away on June 21. It is no exaggeration to say that without Ric there would be no UW Weather Station. It was through his vision and guidance that the idea for the weather station was born and implemented.
My personal relationship with Ric started when he gave a 4th year Geological Engineering student an opportunity to complete an undergraduate thesis under his supervision back in 1990. This then led to a Masters under his co-supervision with Dr. Nick Kouwen and afterward employment for over 10 years principally on the Mackenzie Basin GEWEX project (for which we co-authoured the chapter on Hydrologic modelling in the final report). During this employment I also completed a part-time PhD under his supervision. He always had a positive attitude towards life even given his struggles with post-polio syndrome that limited his physical activities. He always made the time for any student to give them answers to a question or just share his views on science.
I will forever be grateful for all the opportunities, mentorship, and friendship he provided me over these many years.
Frank Seglenieks
UW Weather Station Coordinator
Details of the arrangements can be found here:
https://erbgood.com/tribute/details/14063/Dr-Eric-Ric-Soulis-P-Eng/obituary.html#tribute-start
Sunday, June 3, 2018
May 2018 Summary
The hottest May on record with average precipitation
Well that was some weather whiplash! After April which was 4 degrees below average (the coldest in the history of the region) we just experienced a May that was almost 4.5 degrees above average. This was now the hottest May that we have seen in the local records which go back to 1915, beating 1991 by almost a full degree.
There were only 4 colder than average days during the month and it ended with a streak of 8 days above 25°C, something that has only happened one other time during May back in 1975. There were also 3 of those days above 30°C which has only happened about 5 times in our region (but how about 1962 when there were 5 days above 30°C in a row).
There were 2 really wet days with precipitation over 20 mm (the 4th and 31st) leading to a total for the month of 88.1 mm, a little over the average of 82.3 mm, but still within the average range. We have now had 409.6 mm of precipitation this year, a pretty good bit above the average of 340.2 mm for this time of the year.
Also, we didn’t have a temperature below zero during May, so that means the last one occurred on April 30. This is on the early end of the range of Apr 26 to May 23 we have seen in 20+ years of data at the UW Weather Station.
Summary for May 2018:
Maximum Temperature 31.3°C
Minimum Temperature 1.9°C
Average Daily High Temperature 23.5°C (Long term average 18.5°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 10.3°C (Long term average 6.4°C)
Total Precipitation 88.1 mm (Long term average 82.3 mm)
Well that was some weather whiplash! After April which was 4 degrees below average (the coldest in the history of the region) we just experienced a May that was almost 4.5 degrees above average. This was now the hottest May that we have seen in the local records which go back to 1915, beating 1991 by almost a full degree.
There were only 4 colder than average days during the month and it ended with a streak of 8 days above 25°C, something that has only happened one other time during May back in 1975. There were also 3 of those days above 30°C which has only happened about 5 times in our region (but how about 1962 when there were 5 days above 30°C in a row).
There were 2 really wet days with precipitation over 20 mm (the 4th and 31st) leading to a total for the month of 88.1 mm, a little over the average of 82.3 mm, but still within the average range. We have now had 409.6 mm of precipitation this year, a pretty good bit above the average of 340.2 mm for this time of the year.
Also, we didn’t have a temperature below zero during May, so that means the last one occurred on April 30. This is on the early end of the range of Apr 26 to May 23 we have seen in 20+ years of data at the UW Weather Station.
Summary for May 2018:
Maximum Temperature 31.3°C
Minimum Temperature 1.9°C
Average Daily High Temperature 23.5°C (Long term average 18.5°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature 10.3°C (Long term average 6.4°C)
Total Precipitation 88.1 mm (Long term average 82.3 mm)
(Long term averages based on 1981-2010 data for the Waterloo-Wellington Airport)
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