Warm, dry weather predicted for next three months

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Charles Perry
Weather

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After enduring a rainy spring and a wet, cool start to the summer, New Brunswickers desperately want to hear some good news on the weather front.

And that good news finally arrived yesterday with the release of the one-month (July) and three-month (July, August and September) forecasts by Environment Canada.

Over the next three months, says David Phillips of Toronto, senior climatologist for Environment Canada, near normal temperatures and drier than normal weather conditions are being forecast across the province.

"That is ideal summer weather; it's as good as it gets for July, August and September," he said.

"New Brunswick's average temperature (counting day and night) for the three months is 17.2C (63.1F). Its average rainfall for that period is 267.2 millimetres (10.5 inches)

When they refer to normal or near-normal temperatures, Phillips said people have to remember it is normal relative to where you are in the three-month period. For instance, he said the current normal for Metro Moncton would be 24C (75F), but in three weeks' time, the norm would be up to 26C (79F).

For the Maritime provinces, near normal temperatures and drier-than-normal conditions for the months of July, August and September have to be especially encouraging to residents, said the climatologist.

That is because the really good summer weather in Atlantic Canada comes in those three months, said Phillips. In the rest of Canada, June, July and August are the hot summer months, but in the Maritimes, he said summer weather generally arrives and leaves a month later.

In their one-month forecast for July, it is expected to be normal to cooler than normal in Metro Moncton, said the Environment Canada spokesman. But in most of the province, he said it would be strictly cooler than normal.

Meanwhile, Moncton is emerging from a June with above normal rainfall levels, but still a long way off record levels, said Phillips.

He said 124 millimetres (4.9 inches) of rain fell on the city last month, easily surpassing Moncton's June norm of 92 millimetres (3.6 inches). But it was nowhere near Metro's record June rain total of 203 millimetres (eight inches) that doused the area in 1993.

Phillips said 61.6 millimetres (2.4 inches) of rain were dropped on Moncton on June 4, accounting for a good chunk of the 124 millimetres (4.9 inches) of rain that fell in the city all of last month. He said it set a rainfall record for that day, dwarfing the city's previous June 12 record of 12 millimetres (0.5 inches) established in 1995.

Metro only had two June days with more rain, said the Environment Canada spokesman. He said one was on June 13, 1968, which saw 61.7 millimetres (2.4 inches) fall on the area; and the other on June 4, 2006 when 75.2 millimetres (three inches) of rain fell on the city.

n Charles Perry's Weather appears daily.