The first few days of September became the July we never had – very hot! The daytime high exceeded 30 degrees Celsius for three consecutive days, which is about as hot as it got in July. A record was set for the date on September 5 when the thermometer reached 33.1 C at its peak. But we’ve had September heatwaves before, most recently in 2002, 2007 and 2015. On September 7, 2007, the temperature peaked at 33.9 C!
Even the average temperature hit a pretty good high, settling in after the first nine days at 21.9 C. The average temperature for the month of September is usually 16. 2 C, which is what we got on Sunday 10 September when it drizzled all day and put a real damper on the second day of the Havelock Fair.
The heatwave did wonders for the corn heat unit (CHU) count, bringing in a substantial 230 CHU in nine days. Normal would be 167 CHU for the same time period so September will easily reach the average target of 559 CHU. Since the May 11th start date for the heat unit count, the total recorded so far is 2,794 CHU for the 2023 cropping season, while normal for the same time period is 2,797 CHU.
September continued to be wet with 23 mm of rain (including the drizzly Sunday), the amount is normal for the period covered.
