Peter Finlayson, Ormstown Weatherman
The complete opposite to July 2020, which was a record for heat in the last 54 years (local records), July 2021 was the fifth coolest. While May and June were warmer than normal, July started cool and ended cool.
The average temperature for July actually dipped a little bit in the last week, finishing off at 19.7° C, almost a degree and half below the normal of 21.1° C for the entire month.The lower temperatures were reflected in the number of days when the temperature exceeded 30.0° C – only one for 2021 compared to a record 15 days in 2020.
Heat units (CHU) are still slightly ahead of normal but the gains of May and June have been gradually reduced by the coolness in July. There were 749 CHU recorded for the month, while 799 CHU is the norm. This brings the season-to-date total to 1904 CHU, and normal is 1862 CHU by this time of the growing season which started on May 10th.
August is forecast to be slightly warmer than normal thanks to the nighttime lows which will be above average for most of the month, and daytime temperatures are forecast to reach at least 24° C for many of the days.
July was also wet, although mostly welcome precipitation given the dry spell in May and June. The final tally for the month in Ormstown was 125 mm which is about 40% above average (85 mm).
That being said, precipitation across Quebec, even within regions, was uneven. A lot of the rain fell as shower or thundershower activity, and the amount of precipitation in a particular location varied considerably. The Environment Canada weather station in St-Anicet reported 102 mm of rain in July, with only 69 mm in Vaudreuil-Dorion, and 77 mm in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.