UW Weather Station calls 2017 “the year of streaks”
Posted Jan 14, 2018 05:38:43 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Frank Seglenieks, Coordinator at the University of Waterloo Weather Station calls 2017, the year of streaks.
He says, it all started in January when the region was hit with a mild winter.
12 days in a row that went over 0 degrees, something that has not been seen in the region since 1944.
“It happened again in February, the February one is interesting because we have never seen 12 days in a row in the hundred years of data in the region.”
Seglenieks says that made for the warmest February on the books, and only the 5th time in over 100 years that March was colder then February.
Seglenieks says the summer of 2017 was also unusual, with a late burst of heat in September.
“The real heat of the summer only came at the end of the summer and into the fall when we had 15 days in September above 25 degrees, including 3 of those about 30 degrees which is something we have never seen before.”
Seglenieks adds its possible climate change may be at least partly responsible for the recent trend of long sustained weather patterns.
“There is this tendency towards longer droughts, longer heat streaks or cold streaks. Certainly these streaks that we saw in 2017 fit into the narrative of what we would expect under a changing climate.”
Overall, the highest temperature of the year was registered on September 24th at 32.2 degrees, and the lowest on December 31st at -28.1.
