Southcentral Ontario – I haven’t been posting a weather blog post for a long time. This is a much anticipated blog entry for my readers, and thank you for checking daily on my blog. I hereby apologize that I had not been updating my blog. This is because I am busy with the Wundercast contest on Wunderground. It is a forecasting contest available Wunderground members. So, here comes my blog entry! Well, it seems like winter is not losing its grip just quite yet. We are almost into June and there is still a risk of frost in Southcentral Ontario. The main area of concern is Muskoka, Parry Sound, Grey County, and areas in higher grounds, such as Haliburton Highlands. These areas are at high risk of seeing frost developing tonight. Yesterday, temperature soared up to the mid 20s across Ontario as a result of a push of warm air from the Great Plains of US. Today, however, a return of the arctic air cools everything down. Yesterday night, a cold front sweeps through much of Southwestern Ontario, triggering an issue with the Severe Thunderstorm Watch last night. Much of Southcentral Ontario saw rainfall amounts up to 5 mm. Behind this cold front, is arctic air from Hudson Bay. For everyone’s information, the Hudson Bay is beginning to thaw right now, as the locale is beginning to see above 0 temperatures. In fact, nowadays for daytime high temperatures, it is extremely rare to see daytime highs of negative digits unless you are north of 75 degrees N. However, this airmass from the Hudson Bay area is cool enough to cool down an area that had previously witnessed mid 20 temperatures, and thus throughout today, we were seeing departing clouds, and high winds. These will be a major factor for tonight’s frost. Most of Central Ontario only hit a high of around low teens for today, and with the overnight hours, temperatures may dip as low as 0 in some locale. The clear skies and dying winds will support the formation of frost, as dew freezes into its solid form. The clear skies allow heat to be lose faster than ever. The GTA can expect temperature at around 2 to 4 C for tonight, and as we speak right now, Markham, ON is already down to 5 C. To the north, where the temperature is cooler and has an higher elevation, frost might be even more significant. However, for areas closer to the Great Lakes, for example, the town of Penetanguishene, which is at the shore of Georgian Bay, the risk of frost is lower because the lake is able to “modify” the local temperature. The lakes are warmer than the nighttime lows for tonight. Inland areas would not be as lucky, and get ready to shelter your plants (ummm… it’s kind of late now, but worth a try), as frost kicks in tonight. MY WEATHER WEBSITE: (Still under construction, any feedbacks?) Bookmark my site at www.canadaweather.piczo.com. 
Archive for May, 2008
Risk of Frost… End of May?
Longer Daylight Hours ; Warmer Temperatures
Yukon ; Northwest Territories ; Nunavut – First of all, I apologize for not been writing my weather blog since April 23. I had been spending this time in trying to edit my website. Those of you who are interested, can click on the “Canadian Weather Centre – Blog Outreach” link above.
During this time I had been away from editing my blog, a major weather pattern change happened in the North. Noticeably, the North had significantly warmed up as we enter May, and some parts of the Arctic begins to receive almost 24-hour sunlight.
For areas south of the Arctic Circle, daily temperature highs have been reaching to the positive single digits. For traditionally colder areas (because of the colder Labrador Current flowing past), such as Baffin Island, the local temperature have been reaching as high as 5 C. Wet snow had been falling in the area, and it is forecasted that the local temperature may even reach as high as 11 C by the end of this week.
Towards the west shore of Hudson Bay, cold arctic air had been persistent in the area, and hence the coldest spot of the nation had been in these areas for the past 2 weeks. The locale also reached 0 C in some cases (i.e. Arviat, NU). Note that places such as Boothia Peninsula, Bathurst Inlet, are still way below the freezing mark with temperature around the negative double digits.
As we progress west to Yellowknife and Hay River area, the temperature had been holding steady at around 5 C for the past 2 weeks, when the warm air from Arizona and Texas attacked Alberta and Saskatchewan. The warm air was, at one point, so strong that it pushes the jet stream as north as Yellowknife. However, currently, the jet stream is nowhere near the 60th Parallel. The north has warm temperature solely because of the longer daylight hours.
The Yukon – Alaska Border, the westernmost frontier of Canada, is even warmer. Whitehorse had been reporting temperature in the positive double digits. And like Yellowknife, the reason for this warm up was that the longer daylight hours, invasion of warm air, etc.
Looks like the North is set for summer, but Southern Canada, hmm, not really. Southern Canada’s temperature had been lingering in the double digits. Unlike April, Southern Canada’s temperature had been holding steady around 13 to 19 C. Whereas in April, Southern Canada’s temperature had soared as high as 30 C. One notable example would be Val Marie, Saskatchewan, which hit 29 C. This temperature still remains as the warmest value in Canada for 2008.
MY WEATHER WEBSITE: (Still under construction, any feedbacks?)
Bookmark my site at www.canadaweather.piczo.com.
