August eased off from hot and humid weather in the last few days – but just a bit. The overall temperature dropped a full degree and total precipitation was normal, unless you happened to be in the path of the numerous thunderstorms that plowed their way across the Valley at the beginning of the week.
There were several weather events that looked close to being tornadoes, but were nonetheless destructive with trees uprooted, branches down, extended power outages and for unfortunate apple growers on the Covey Hill, a significant dumping of hail.
Rainfall for the first two weeks of the month totaled 83 millimetres at the farm in Ormstown, which is equivalent to a full month of normal precipitation. Combined with the last three days of July, the Valley has received at least 140 mm of precipitation in just over two weeks. In comparison, the Environment Canada weather station in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue received just 64 mm in the same period.
Temperatures continued to be warm and the air humid with the average temperature a degree and a half above normal at 21.7 degrees Celsius, with normal for the entire month being 20.2 C.
In lockstep with the above-average temperature, the corn heat unit (CHU) count continued to climb with 400 CHU for the first 15 days; compared to the prorated calculation of 372 CHU, the month is well on its way to reaching the normal for August, 768 CHU. The total so far for the season (since May 16) is now 2243 CHU, or about 65 per cent of normal.
The remainder of August is forecast to be slightly cooler than average during the day and slightly warmer at night with shower and thundershower activity continuing through the middle of the month.