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Summer Was Second-Warmest on Record, Says Environment Canada

Posted on: Tuesday, 12 September 2006, 18:00 CDT

By DENNIS BUECKERT

OTTAWA (CP) - Yes, it was hot. Environment Canada says the summer of 2006 was the second-warmest since national record-keeping began in 1948.

Average temperatures were 1.4 degrees above normal during June, July and August, continuing a warming trend which has been evident every season but two over the past nine years. The hottest year - and summer - on record was 1998. The trend is consistent with computer projections of what will happen under climate change, says Environment Canada scientist Bob Whitewood.

Summer temperatures in Canada have increased .9 degrees over the last 60 years, he said in an interview Tuesday.

The greatest warming this summer occurred in the Arctic, where temperatures reached more than 2.5 degrees above normal along the border between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Warming is most pronounced in the North because of what scientists call a positive feedback loop: as reflective ice and snow melt, less heat is bounced into space and more is absorbed by water and land.

The season was unusually dry in Western Canada, with precipitation 40 per cent below average in the southwest coast and central mountains of British Columbia and parts of southern Manitoba.

But it was the wettest summer on record in the Atlantic Provinces, with 36 per cent more precipitation than normal.

"The West Coast is dry and the East Coast is wet," said Whitewood.

It has been a demanding year for forest fire control, said Tom Johnston, operations manager of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in Winnipeg.

He said the season started early and is continuing longer than normal. Ontario has had close to 400 fires in the past two weeks. Demand for crews and equipment has exceeded supply at times.

"This is September, it's supposed to be over. We're mobilizing crews into Ontario as we speak."

"Many of our fires were within the higher-valued areas, requiring more immediate attack and more aggressive attack and more resources. We also had a very hot dry year basically extending from Ontario west.

"That exacerbated the fires that did occur. They weren't nice, easy, normal fires. They got up, they hit and they ran fast."

Johnston said there is debate over how to enhance forest-fire control given the long-term implications of the greenhouse effect.

Source: Canadian Press

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