Featuring Connor Mockett
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another week of The Weather with Connor. This week I thought I’d do a little end of summer Q&A with all of you. You asked questions, and I had answers for you! So, let’s get started.
Q: What’s your prediction for this coming Winter?
A: I think that this winter will be much drier than the Winter of 2022-23. Typically with El Nino years in the Pacific Ocean, that leaves the region with below average precipitation amounts. Obviously with every winter, there will be the big storms as always, but I think there’ll be way fewer and just less snow in general for the Winter of 2023-24.
Q: Are we going to get any more warm weather this year? Hoping to get some more time in my swimming pool.
A: Generally, temperatures will be above normal for the rest of this month, aside from a couple days here and there. That means that daytime highs will be well into the 20’s on a lot of the days. There won’t necessarily be much humidity, but warm enough that it’ll be nice to take a dip in a pool sometimes. I’d watch out for the beginning of October as well for some well above normal temperatures.
Q: Did Eastern Ontario have fewer storms this summer but did the ones that hit seem more serious? Is that an accurate observation? How do this season’s storms compare to other seasons?
A: Yes, this was actually a very quiet season for Eastern Ontario. Easily the worst chasing season I’ve had around here, that’s for sure. But yes, I found the storm days that the region had were above what this region is used too. We always have a couple of really volatile days, but we had many of those environments this year that were just so primed for severe weather, like July 13th and August 3rd to name a couple, which were both tornado days. In terms of the quantity of storms, this season was abnormal, but in terms of the quality of storms, it was above average. A weird season all around. Essentially, the season lasted about 5 or 6 weeks, we had nothing here until June 26th, and the last real storm day (which was the Ottawa flash flooding event) was on August 10th. There’s nothing in the near term or future for storms either, so this season seems to have ended extremely early, which I’ve also never seen.
Q: Based on the rate of climate change right now, what kind of weather do you predict in about 5-10 years from now for our area?
A: Truthfully, I have no idea what even next season has in store for us, let alone 5-10 years from now. But the research and the science is there, and it supports the fact that climate change is drastically changing the way storms happen here. It’s very obvious here too in the last 5-7 years, in my opinion, with multiple very crazy storm seasons. Logic would tell me that this should continue, but realistically, who knows? The climate will do whatever it wants whenever it wants.
Q: What are the tornado do’s and don’ts when taking shelter?
A: First of all, when you hear that alert come over your phone that there’s a tornado warning, the first instinct should be going down to your basement in your home. Being underground is the safest place to take shelter. If you don’t have a basement, taking shelter in the bathroom is typically the best alternative, as it has 4 sturdy walls around you. A couple of don’ts would be taking shelter in your vehicle, taking shelter in a room with windows, or taking shelter in a garage. Vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a tornado, as they easily flip with the wind and get tossed around like a toy. Obviously, taking shelter in a room with windows isn’t good either, mostly because if the window breaks, then the shards of glass come at you, and the wind does too, and your room of shelter is then compromised. If you’re taking shelter in a garage, that’s no good either, as the wind pushing on the garage door makes it one of the first things to get damaged on a home when it pushes it straight in and rips it. Then again, the wind comes inside and compromises your shelter.
That’ll do it for this round of Q&A. Thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you all next time!
