Hello folks,

It's sure quiet on here, hopefully Graeme back in Fife is ok and enjoying the new season of MLB. The Jays have had a mixed start, 6 wins 8 defeats in their opening couple of weeks, improvement required.

As for the weather, improvement is coming and an early taste of not just Spring but Summer tomorrow for most of Southern Ontario. Temps could touch 24c/75f and EC are talking about humidex readings, which means that summer can't be far off! This brief heat breaks by tomorrow evening as Scattered Thunderstorms break out across the GTA and a cold front sweeps a 10-15c difference come Friday. By Saturday, the forecast calls for just +3c, a 21c difference in 48hrs, that's a Peter Calgary swing not a Stewart Hamilton one!

All this comes off the back of a return to winter for some parts of the GTA last week as a winter storm swept in. Parts of Toronto and NW of the big city saw lying snow, in Hamilton and Dundas sleet fell, and it was very cold. Definate swings and roundabouts for us the now.

Finally a word for a sports mad town in Boston. I have friends in beantown and what happened at the end of the marathon on Monday shook that city to it's foundations. But, its a sports loving place and that spirit alone will see this great city rise above the darkness of 2:58pm on Monday. Thinking of all my friends in Boston, Mass.

Take Care

Hello folks,

Quick update on the weird weather we are having in the GTA right now. Yesterday saw by far the highest temps of the whole year and summer-like conditions in the afternoon as the mercury hit 25.5c/77f at Hamilton Munro. Unofficially, even under skies that were clouding over HBG (Hamilton Beautanic Gardens) down by the Lake saw 27.2c, very close to the record but not quite for that date in April.

A very short spell of those temps though as Severe Thunderstorms, scattered in nature came into Southern Ontario. This triggered the first Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Toronto & Hamilton since last September and although here in the Hamilton area we dodged the worst of the weather, some storms did fire especially NW of Toronto where damage is reported this morning as EC detail below :

==weather event discussion==
A line of strong thunderstorms crossed Southern Ontario Thursday
afternoon into the evening in conjunction with an intensifying low
pressure system tracking towards the Central Great Lakes. There were
a few reports of damage associated with strong winds in some of the
more severe storms embedded within this line. It is not clear whether
the damage is due to straight-line winds or one or two brief
tornadoes that touched down. An Environment Canada team is planning
to do a damage survey today.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Location                         event description

5 km northwest of Shelburne      roof off barn and thrown 500 Ft,
                                 Hydro lines down, fallen trees.

7 km west of Shelburne           east side off of barn, fallen trees

Riverview                        hydro wires down
(14 km west of Shelburne)

5 km northeast of Newmarket      about 20 hydro poles blown down
(woodbine ave. North of green    (around 7:20 PM)
Lane)

This weather summary contains preliminary information and may not
constitute an official or final report.

The damage from local news reports i've seen this morning in Shelburne, looks like that of an EF0 Tornado. The cold front coming in behind the storms is currently going through the Lakeshore with wind gusts upto 70kph and temps have dropped from 18c at 9am this morning to just 8c at 2pm. Temps will continue to fall into tomorrow and even a few snow flurries could be seen as temps struggle to +2c.

Amazing stuff! It's looking unsettled and cold next week

Whatever your upto have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers Stuart that is some fall of temp in a short space of time

Meanwhile in Ontario; my relative who lives in Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, has had nearly 1 foot of snow fall last night and this morning. It's a place that gets quite a lot of snow normally, but this is exceptional for April, and it's quite surprising to see how warm it is in the state capital!

Here's a photo from this morning:

^^^^^^

Excellent Darren

Interesting to see the recent weather records set recently in the USA.

see -

here

Change the dates and hover the mouse over individual locations for details.

The snowcover anomalies can be seen here

Again change the dates and watch the development of the snowcover anomalies since the middle of February.

Edit: Sorry couldn't get link to work using 'hamweather', so used WUWT instead.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/04/29/cold-snowy-spring-weather/2121737/

April has been a freakishly cold month across much of the northern USA, bringing misery to millions of sun-starved and winter-weary residents from the Rockies to the Midwest.

"The weather map ... looks like something out ofThe Twilight Zone," Minneapolis meteorologist Paul Douglas of WeatherNation TV wrote on his blog last week.

Despite it being May, winter still has parts of Canada in its icy grip. The same relative as above, in Thunder Bay, Canada, is having yet another snow day today, and this at a location that is further south than the UK!

See it snowing here, live, at least for another hour before it gets dark.

http://184.70.50.26/en/index.html

Here is a roundup of the utterly exceptional snowfalls parts of the Midwestern and even Southeastern US have seen during the first few days of may - 3 days days and counting. Madness.

KANSAS
A RECORD SNOWFALL OF TRACE OF SNOW WAS SET AT TOPEKA KS TODAY

South Dakota
A RECORD SNOWFALL OF 1.5 INCH(ES) WAS SET AT SIOUX FALLS SD MAY 1, 2013. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.1 SET IN 1967.

IOWA
• AS OF 500 PM 5/2/13...A RECORD SNOWFALL OF 1.7 INCHES HAD FALLEN AT DES MOINES IA. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF TRACE SET IN 1976.
• THE 1.7 INCHES OF SNOW ALSO IS THE HIGHEST SINGLE DAY MAY SNOW TOTAL FOR DES MOINES. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 1.2 INCHES SET ON MAY 3 1907.
• THIS IS ALSO THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF SNOW EVER RECEIVED IN THE MONTH OF MAY FOR DES MOINES. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 1.3 INCHES SET DURING MAY OF 1907.

Snowiest May Day Ever recorded
• CHARLES CITY, IA 1.0 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 0.2 INCHES FROM MAY 11 1966, RECORDS GO BACK TO 1893
• OSAGE, IA 7.0 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 1.5 INCHES FROM MAY 28 1947, RECORDS GO BACK TO 1893
• ST ANSGAR, IA 5.2 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 0.0 INCHES RECORDS GO BACK TO 2007
• Forest City, IA 11" of snow is a new record for daily AND monthly snowfall in May for Iowa

Snowiest May storm in IA history. Avg statewide snowfall of 2.0" breaks the old record of 1.2" IN 1947

MINNESOTA
THROUGH 130 PM...THE OFFICIAL OBSERVER NEAR THE ROCHESTER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REPORTED A TOTAL OF 13.5 INCHES OF SNOW.
THIS SHATTERS THE PREVIOUS DAILY SNOWFALL RECORD FOR THIS DATE...WHICH WAS 0.7 INCHES SET BACK IN 1954.

IT IS STILL SNOWING IN ROCHESTER... RECORDS FOR ROCHESTER MINNESOTA DATE BACK TO 1886.

Snowiest May Day Ever
AUSTIN, MN 10.0 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 3.0 INCHES FROM MAY 8 1938
BYRON, MN 9.6 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF A TRACE FROM MAY 2 2011
DODGE CENTER, MN 15.4 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 0.0 INCHES
ELGIN 2SSW, MN 7.4 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 2.5 INCHES FROM MAY 5 1944
GRAND MEADOW, MN 5.0 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE REORD OF 2.0 INCHES FROM MAY 5 1944
LANESBORO, MN 1.6 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF A TRACE FROM MAY 1 1997
SPRING VALLEY, MN 1.0 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 0.4 INCHES FROM MAY 2 2005, RECORDS GO BACK TO 1941
THEILMAN, MN 6.2 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 0.3 INCHES FROM MAY 6 1944 RECORDS GO BACK TO 1938
WABASHA,MN 5.6 INCHES ON MAY 2, 2013 BROKE THE RECORD OF 0.3 INCHES FROM MAY 1 2007 RECORDS GO BACK TO 1956

WISONSIN
ON MAY 2ND...0.4 INCHES OF SNOW WAS RECORDED NEAR THE LA CROSSE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. THIS BREAKS THE PREVIOUS DAILY SNOWFALL RECORD FOR THIS DATE...WHICH WAS A TRACE OF SNOW BACK IN 2005. RECORDS FOR LA CROSSE WISCONSIN DATE BACK TO 1873

NEBRASKA

A RECORD SNOWFALL OF 0.7 INCHES WAS SET AT GRAND ISLAND NE May 1, 2013. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF A TRACE SET IN 1994. SNOWFALL RECORDS AT GRAND ISLAND DATE BACK TO 1895

A DAILY RECORD SNOWFALL OF 2.5 INCHES WAS SET AT LINCOLN ON MAY 1st. NO MEASURABLE SNOWFALL HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN RECORDED ON MAY 1st IN LINCOLN...BUT A TRACE OF SNOW WAS LAST RECORDED IN 1994.

A DAILY RECORD SNOWFALL OF 0.2 INCHES WAS SET AT LINCOLN ON MAY 2nd. NO MEASURABLE SNOWFALL HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN RECORDED ON MAY 2nd IN LINCOLN.

A DAILY RECORD SNOWFALL OF 1.9 INCHES WAS SET AT OMAHA EPPLEY ON MAY 1st. THIS BREAKS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 0.2 INCHES SET IN 1911.

A DAILY RECORD SNOWFALL OF 1.2 INCHES WAS SET AT OMAHA EPPLEY ON MAY 2nd. NO MEASURABLE SNOWFALL HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN RECORDED ON MAY 2nd IN OMAHA.

THE MONTHLY SNOWFALL TOTAL OF 3.1 INCHES IS THE RECORD HIGHEST FOR THE MONTH OF MAY. THIS BREAKS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 2.0 INCHES SET IN 1945.

A RECORD SNOWFALL OF 8.2 INCH(ES) WAS SET AT EAU CLAIRE WI MAY 2, 2013. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 1.5 SET IN 1935.

12 inches of snow in Ackley, Iowa.

Snow time lapse in Minnesota.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHPYa2eOXCI&feature=player_embedded

Some record with all that weather....

Weekend greetings! Feels like I've been away from this thread forever. A case of real life getting in the way but things have quietened down now so I should get more time to post.

More to the point only three weeks now til I'm back in Toronto for the first time since 2005. Even with the Blue Jays playing absolutely horribly, just awful, to open the season I'm looking forward to the holiday

As the reports above show winter still wasn't done with North America even as we headed into May. Much like over here it's been a very slow start to spring and seems to have taken forever to escape out of winter, especially for the Midwest/Great Plains/Prairies.

How cold has it been? Let's take Regina, Saskatchewan as an example and look at April. The average mean temp for the month is 4.5c. The mean temp for April 2013 was -4!!!!! There were 15 ice days. Last April there wasn't a single ice day. The average daily max for April 2013 was 0.6c (average 10.9c). Incredible stuff. 

Although most of the snow has now ended, it's still miserable in a few parts. Thunder Bay, Ontario has a freezing rain warning out right now - not really what you want on May 4th. This follows on from an ice day yesterday.

Fortunately it's not all doom and gloom. A lovely weekend in prospect for southern Ontario and Quebec into much of the NE States. Plenty of sun and warm temps in the low and mid 20s. Ottawa has started May in lovely fashion with highs of 25c, 27.5c, 24c with similar to come over the next few days. Not quite that warm in Toronto and Hamilton but a great weekend on offer.

Hello folks, like Graeme real life taking a toll on weather reporting so here goes since i have the weekend off!

Yeah, it's certainly more spring-like evn summer-like weather for much of Southern Ontario over the past few days. Temps upto 23.4c here in Hamilton yesterday and it's that perfect weather set-up of comfortable sleeping nights with temps between 6-10c and nice but no a/c required during the day. Having escaped the cutches of winter (hopefully) it's been a joy.

The weather this week looks like staying fairly similar with sun and temps just into the 70sF on tap. We are East of the extrodonary bad weather over the mid-west and even into the South and Southeast as reported above. Some incredible snow totals for May as the weather doesn't know when to give up it's grip on winter. Amazingly also and probably good news, despite the moans from folk out there about the poor weather, that we are currently running at 40% below the average for Tornadoes in this season, and i think on the whole this is something to celebrate.

As for the Jays Graeme, dismal! Just dismal. They are 2nd in the league for homers this season, or were before the Mariners defeat last night but they are way off where they should be even for early season and social media being what it is these days, Gibbons is under major pressure. Must turn things around this month or another year can be binned!

Whatever your upto make it a great weekend everyone.

Creeping Ice destroys homes, see -

http://news.sky.com/story/1089882/creeping-wall-of-ice-destroys-homes-in-canada

Big hail now in Texas -

see