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Almanac predicts colder winter

The Old Farmer's Almanac  is predicting Northern Ontario will have below-normal precipitation and snowfall this winter.

The Old Farmer's Almanac  is predicting Northern Ontario will have below-normal precipitation and snowfall this winter.


Temperatures will be near normal, on average, with the coldest periods in early-, mid-, and late-December, and mid- and late-January.

The heaviest snowfalls will occur in late November, mid- and late-December, late-January, and late-March, the almanac predicts.

April and May should be cooler than normal, on average, with above-normal precipitation in the east and below-normal precipitation in the west. There could be snow  during the first half of April 2007.

The summer season will be a bit cooler and wetter than normal. The hottest temperatures will occur in mid- to late June, mid-July, and early and late August.

Environment Canada says August was drier than normal for most of the province and the temperature was generally within a degree of normal.

The driest conditions in the province were felt in Thunder Bay. Its meagre 16.5 millimetres of rain eclipsed the previous record of 26.9, set in 1976. This was in sharp contrast to this year's wet July, when 124.5 millimetres (35.5 above normal) fell.

There are always exceptions, and this month was, well, no exception. Wet conditions were reported in eastern and Northern Ontario.

Petawawa had two events that exceeded 40 millimetres in a day, on Aug. 1 and on Aug. 19. Moosonee had a number of large rainfall events that brought its total to an amount not seen in 19 years.

Severe Weather

Mother Nature packed a month's worth of severe weather into one day. Aside from the numerous reports of damaging winds and tornadoes that occurred Aug. 2 and into the early morning hours of the next day, there was little in the way of additional damaging storms this month.


As of this time, Environment Canada has confirmed that nine tornadoes occurred on Aug. 2, but follow-up investigations continue with respect to other locations, which experienced significant damage.


The ninth tornado was confirmed in the Big Mink Lake area, just to the east of the southern tip of Algonquin Park, based on aerial images of the damage. This is the largest number of tornadoes to occur on a single day in Ontario since 13 occurred on May 31, 1985, with one of those 13 being the Barrie Tornado.

This brings the total number of tornadoes in Ontario this season to 17. The average number of tornadoes in Ontario during the summer severe weather season, which runs from late April to early October, is 14.

Damage reports from the storms on Aug 2 and 3 were scattered over a good portion of southern and eastern Ontario. Significant damage occurred in areas on the Bruce Peninsula, around Southern Georgian Bay through the Gravenhurst, Haliburton and Peterborough County areas, and then eastwards to locations south of Algonquin Park.

Amazingly, given the extent of the damage in some of the hardest-hit areas, no fatalities or serious injuries were reported.

Most of the damage done to homes, barns and vehicles were the result of falling trees or tree branches - though in a few cases, strong winds or tornadoes tore the roofs off buildings or seriously damaged them.

The hardest hit area was in and around the small community of Combermere, to the south of Algonquin Park. Scenes of total devastation were left in the aftermath of the Fujita Scale 2 tornado (peak winds approximately 200 kilometres per hour) that moved through this region. A particularly severe path of destruction occurred in a trailer park, leaving trees snapped, uprooted and in some cases debarked over a width of a few hundred metres and a length of a few kilometres. The trees caused significant damage to cars and camping vehicles, as well as damage in the town itself.

The coldest day recorded in Sudbury during August occurred on Aug. 30, 1976 when the temperature dipped to -1.1 C. The warmest day was Aug. 1, 1975 when the temperature was 36.7 C.


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