After Winter's "Invisible Drought", Southern Ontario Experiences Warmest April On Record

[hatrack]

WATERLOO REGION — The “invisible drought” is now easier to see. Waterloo Region — and most of southern Ontario — just finished the warmest April on record, after one of the driest winters in 70 years.

The low water levels in rivers and creeks are more typical of midsummer than spring. Farmers are already irrigating parched fields to coax newly planted seeds to sprout. Allergy season arrived three weeks early, without any steady rains to clean the air. It’s the opening weekend for Grand River Conservation Authority parks, but a spokesperson openly hopes that the promised rain and thunderstorms will linger. “We could use a good soaking,” said Dave Schultz

The conservation’s authority’s “low-water response team” is already issuing reminders not to waste water. For now, he said there’s no talk about water-use restrictions beyond the normal once-a-week lawn watering rules that are in effect from May 31 to Sept. 30. Over the winter there wasn’t much snow and it was almost like the invisible drought,” said David Phillips, climatologist at Environment Canada.

As of last week, the equivalent of 300 millimetres — about 12 inches — of rain fell at the Shand Dam recording station since Nov. 1. The average is 450 mm, or 18 inches. Now, with soaring temperatures in March and April, which averaged more than 3C above normal, nature is under stress from the lack of precipitation, officials say. Phillips estimates the April 2010 average high in Waterloo Region was 9.1C. Normal is more like 6C. The previous warmest April — with an average temperature of 8.1C — occurred in 1987 and was matched in 1991.

EDIT

http://news.therecord.com/article/704960

[GliderGuider]

1. Ottawa is seeing the same thing.

We're on the eastern edge of Ontario, 400 miles from area they're describing in the article, but we're dry as a bone and hotter than (a Canadian version of) hell here too. The tulips and lilacs are a full month ahead of schedule. The fields are dusty dry. I think this summer is going to be hard on farmers.

[joshcryer]

2. The whole planet experienced the warmest April on record. It's just that subarctic-arctic...

...is most sensitive to it.