August ended up on the cool side, with an average temperature of 19.2 degrees Celsius (C). The normal for the month is 20.2 C and the average for the last 50 years is 19.8 C, so it was not only cool, but likely one of the coolest in the last century.
The U.S. weather service in Burlington, Vermont, recently reported that the warmest daytime high for August 2023 was 28 C, which resulted in the lowest daytime high for the area since 1927. Given that the warmest daytime high for Ormstown and the Environment Canada weather station in Saint-Anicet was 29 C, it’s likely that the Valley will be looking at a similar record.
Ironically, the first week of September is forecast to be a heatwave with several days when the daytime high will substantially exceed 30 C. Despite the late-season warmth, livestock farmers are happier given the unexpected opening to make a decent amount of quality hay.
There was another deluge of rain at the end of the month which jumped the monthly precipitation from “normal” to “above normal” overnight. Total rainfall for August ended up at 109 millimetres which is about 25 per cent above normal, and only added to the puddles in the fields left over from the record rainfall month of July.
Given the cool temperatures in August, the corn heat unit (CHU) count has been holding steady and is only slightly behind normal. August closed with 726 CHU, which is slightly lower than the normal of 768 CHU for the same period. Since the May 11 start date for the heat unit count, the total recorded so far is 2,564 CHU for the 2023 cropping season, while normal for the same time period is 2,630 CHU.