Well, it has been a long winter, and this year it's not been an East/West thing, but the whole country. We had a bit of warming in March, but it didn't last, winter came back with avengance and it was not until early April that we started to see some signs of Spring.  The leaves are starting to come out now, which is unfortunately cue for a snowy spell this weekend.  After temps hitting 20 yesterday, they droppeed to 4c today, and continue to drop.  Rain turns to snow overnight and we're expecting 10cm+ by the end of tomorrow.  Now, it's going to be close to freezing, so I'd expect it to melt on the roads, but we're likely to see some accumulation elsewhere.

Warmup to double digits isn't expected until Thursday, so what I hope to be winter's last fling is now with us for the next 5 days....

Peter

July 2013 - June 2014 Stats
Elevation: 1084m
Latitude: 51° 6' N
Warmest Temperature: 32.8c 02/07/13
Coldest Temperature: -30.4c 01/03/14
Days with thunderstorms: 7
Days with rain falling: 41
Days with snow falling: 69
Days with snow lying: 150
Maximum snow depth: 12" (30cm)
Current snow depth 0" (0cm)

 

Hi Peter,

Certainly a snowy scene in Calgary this morning: http://www.cbc.ca/calgary/webcam/cgy_roofcam.jpg Reports of up to 23cm in SW Calgary http://weather.gc.ca/warnings/weathersummaries_e.html#AB . Not bad for May 4th. Still impressive snow/ice cover for early May http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif - the legacy of the long, cold winter.

Fortunately it's looking a bit warmer in Southern Ontario as I'm headed to Toronto on Thursday for a quick visit and to catch a few Blue Jays games. Forecast looking like it may warm up to the low 20s by late week but it's also likely to be showery. Good thing the Rogers Centre has a roof! Though the way the Jays have been playing lately maybe it'd be better if the games could be rained out!

Will try and post while I'm over!

 

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Record heat to hit parts of Texas through to Kansas, temps 20F degrees above average

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/nearrecord-heat-to-build-over/26391974

 

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Chicago ensembles - Big drop in the temperature for the Chicago area this week, hot tomorrow (probably around 31C) then the big drop to around 13C by Thursday.

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/MT8_Chicago_USA_ens.png

 

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Don't post in here too much, but thought it would be worth highlighting some potentially phenomenal heat in Southern California over the next few days. At home in Santa Monica by the beach, a high over the next 3 days of 35c, which is quite something by the sea. Indeed last night, an offshore breeze picked up and at 3am it was 26c (compare to usual overnight lows of 14c and daytime highs of 18c).  Current 9am temperature is 30c in Santa Monica.  Inland here at work we expect a high of around 38c.  I'd expect somewhere in the San Fernando valley of LA to hit 40c in the next couple of days, quite something for early-mid May.

Nevertheless, this all is tied in with a strong offshore flow shielding us away from the Pacific marine layer, and with very low humidity levels, some gusty winds, hot air, and very dry brush fromt he ongoing drought, there are extreme fire dangers- something to watch.

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Chicago reached 30C yesterday, compare that to January 6th when they had a dangerous windchill of -41C!! 

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KORD/2014/1/6/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

 

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And by complete contrast to the heat in some places, here is a picture taken en route from Colorado Springs to Denver on Sunday 11th May. Snow was continuous during the whole journey but did not settle on the roads.

 

http://s690.photobucket.com/user/keitht7/media/I-25_LoneTree.jpg.html

 

And it was 29C a few days before that!

Crazy country.

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A month of huge contrasts there at the moment. Tornados seem to have been limited thankfully....but lots of flooding rain, big storms (the line of storms last night was 1000 miles wide). And now the heat in California and the snow for Denver. Impressive. There is even some record low temps in Texas tonight and tomorrow, around 10C in Houston which is cold in Winter nevermind May, where the overnight temp was 25-27C the other night.

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Some big temp contrasts over very small areas on some of the Great Lakes currently. Hamilton ON is currently reporting 29C while 10 miles down the road in Burlington on Lake Ontario it's just 7C with an onshore breeze off the lake.

More heat in California 

From the US National Weather Service

Statement as of 9:25 PM PDT on May 14, 2014

... Corrected information for Oxnard and Camarillo... 

... Preliminary record high temperatures set today... 

a record high temperature of 96 degrees was set at Los Angeles 
Airport CA today. This breaks the old record of 87 set in 1967.

A record high temperature of 99 degrees was set at downtown Los 
Angeles/usc today. This broke the old record of 96 set in 1890.

A record high temperature of 101 degrees was set at Long Beach 
Airport CA today. This broke the old record of 93 set in 1970.

A record high temperature of 96 degrees was set at ucla today. This 
broke the old record of 87 set in 2013 and 1979.

A record high temperature of 83 degrees was set at Sandberg CA 
today. This broke the old record of 82 set in 2013 and 2006.

A record high temperature of 102 degrees was set at Camarillo 
Airport CA today. This broke the old record of 98 set in 1979. This 
also set a new high temperature record for the month of may for 
Camarillo... which was previously 98 degrees set 4 times... on may 1st 
2014... may 2nd 2013... may 14th 1979... and may 16th 1970. 

This is also the earliest date in the calendar year on which the 
high temperature at Camarillo Airport exceeded 100 degrees. Prior to 
this... the earliest such date was June 16 1981... when the high
was also 102 degrees. The all time high at Camarillo Airport is 103 
degrees... set on September 24th 1978.

A record high temperature of 102 degrees was set at Oxnard nwsfo CA 
today. This broke the old record of 98 set in 1979. This also set a 
new high temperature record for the month of may for the city of 
Oxnard... which was previously 98 degrees set 2 times... on may 14th 
1979 and may 16th 1970. 

This is also the earliest date in the calendar year on which the 
high temperature at Oxnard nwsfo exceeded 100 degrees. Prior to 
this... the earliest such date was June 16 1981... when the high was 
also 102 degrees. The all time high in the city of Oxnard is 104 
degrees set on September 22nd 1939.

Both Oxnard and Camarillo Airport reached exactly 100 degrees... 
but did not exceed it... on April 6 1989. That was the earliest date
in the calendar year on which triple digit heat was recorded
at both locations. 

A record high temperature of 98 degrees was set at Santa Barbara 
Airport CA today. This broke the old record of 90 set in 1970.

A record high temperature of 100 degrees was set at Santa Maria 
Airport CA today. This broke the old record of 92 set in 1922.

A record high temperature of 100 degrees was set at Paso Robles 
Airport CA today. This tied the old record of 100 set in 1972.

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According to Accuweather, yesterdays hottest US location was a very unusual one in Santa Ana, California at 106degF (41.1degC). This is quite a remarkable temperature for Santa Ana and considering its location and beating all other locations in California, it is astonishing.

Santa Monica (home) on the beach maxed out at 97degF (36c) yesterday, but night temperatures have been in the 70s which has made for some uncomfortable sleeping (houses by the beach rarely have air con due to the moderate outside climate).  Daytimes have made the interiors into saunas.  Getting home last night at 10pm from work and my footy game meant I could not inspect the veggie garden, so I am praying nothing is looking too crispy today following another hot one 

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Quick Update, Santa Monica already past yesterdays max value, curently sitting at 37c as of 11.45am:

 

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/santa-monica-ca/90405/weather-forecast/337241

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22*C across 10 miles 

Can't imagine such a thing over this side of the pond 

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And the heat goes on, but not for much longer. After another hot one today, temperatures will fall back to more seasonable levels by Sunday, and here on the beach may even be cool with some sea fog by Monday as the flow changes onshore.  Yesterday maxed at 37c with a low of 22c by the sea, inland 10 miles in downtown LA they hit 39c, so there is no doubt that somewhere in the LA metro area exceeded 40c, and probably by an easy degree or two.

Current readings are 26c at 8.45am in Santa Monica.

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Certainly hot temps over there. No doubt the strong solar heating will also help you in these situations, being as south as you are - as far south as parts of Morocco, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc.

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Some good posts on here of late! 

I was over in Toronto for a few days and can certainly attest to the large range of temperatures as dictated by lake breezes. The water temperature on Lake Ontario was still around 5c so not too surprising!

I was very lucky to have four predominantly dry and sunny days with temps peaking at 24c last Sunday. If only the Blue Jays were as consistent - but the baseball was good too!

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Indeed, quite unusual for so early in the season.  Along the beach, this would not be too unusual if it was September but May and June are known for May Grey and June Gloom when inland heats up pulling in the cool saturated air off the Pacific.  No doubt also that the very warm and dry winter is feeding back in that sea temperatures are a touch higher reducing the contrast beween inland and the coast, and that there is less evaporation available to take up some of that energy from the sun meaning temperatures can rise higher.  Throw in an offshore breeze and there is recipe for this heat.  I expect this will be a very hot summer, before a very wet El Nino winter next year (fingers crossed, we need rain badly).

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Hi folks,

It's been a good while since i posted in here so apologies. We were over on the West Coast of Canada in Vancouver for a week about 10 days or so ago and had a brill time away from work, didn't go for the weather per say but on the whole it was fairly decent when you've got a soft-top to get around. Truely a stunning part of the world, British Columbia as many of the regulars on TWO would vouch for.

Back here in Dundas, we've had a good 2-3 weeks now of summer-like temperatures, well early summer-like temps at any rate. As Graeme posted when he was over a big difference in location during May and from which direction the wind blew deterimed your temps. On-the-Mountain and with shelter from the breeze somedays Upper Dundas was 5-7c higher than lower Dundas at James & Mohawk.

I'm amazed to read of the temp comparison with Burlington though that one poster put on earlier in the feed. Lake temps are still only 7c or so, which is very cold for the time of the year due to all that Ice and deep Ice build-up even on Ontario over the coldest winter for a generation here.

Temps into the low to mid 20c range, a couple of days already with a good Thunderstorm, indeed Southern Ontario's first Tornado of 2014 was just 150miles or so NW of Hamilton about a week ago, it was an EF0 as most of them are here (thankfully).

Today it's partly cloudy with some sunny breaks and temps around 22c, chance for humidity to build again later this afternoon after a couple of days of clearer air around here.

What about the Jays Graeme? Amazing stuff, i think your visit in May must have brought on good luck. Top of AL East for the first time in ages, had a 4 game lead for the first time since 1995 the other night i read in the Toronto Star and Edwin is just oliterating the opposition on the field with homer after homer. I really hope they can keep this going, to make the playoffs would be a vast improvement on the last few years at least, who knows then where they will go?

P.S. Next time your over here we are going to have to try and finally get that beer over a game!

Take Care folks