Ottawa five-day heat wave ‘the opening act for a long, warm summer:’ Environment Canada
Posted Jun 16, 2020 08:39:00 PM.
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Five straight days of temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (C) may be abnormal for Ottawa in mid-June, but Environment Canada's senior climatologist thinks it could just be the first of many local summer heat waves.
Technically, it's not the first heatwave of the year, as temperatures did spike in Ottawa at the end of May — climatologist David Phillips believes May 25 might still go down as the hottest day the capital will see all year at 35 C — but this June wave is expected to last longer.
From Wednesday to Sunday, high temperatures are forecasted at 30, 32, 33, 33, and 32. The high of 30 on Wednesday is already six degrees warmer than average for this time of the year in Ottawa.
Phillips thinks the humidity could be a factor as well as the first day of summer officially arrives on Saturday, June 20.
“From a health point of view, it's always the length of the heatwave or heat-spell that will often cause higher hospital admissions, people feeling faint and having to deal with it,” he explains. “When you know that tomorrow is going to be better than today, well, you can grin and bear it, but when you know that it's going to be worse tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, it begins to wear down on us.”
Phillips says April and May were actually a bit cooler, on average, in Ottawa, so this week's non-stop heat without even a break for rain, might come as a bit of a shock for some. Others might be see it as bonus patio time, now that Ottawa restaurants and bars are back open in that capacity.
It's going to be a long, warm summer, according to Environment Canada's most recent forecasting models.
“This is just maybe the opening act,” says Phillips.
