A WARMER THAN AVERAGE FALL PREDICTED

This week’s cooler temperatures have been an abrupt reminder for Reginans that fall is just around the corner. The question now is, what kind of weather will fall bring?

FALL WILL BE WARMER THAN AVERAGE

How much warmer, though, is hard to predict.

“(Eastern Canada has) been above the entire summer and well above average ... Western Canada not so much. So we’ve had sort of, especially across the Prairies, more of an average type of summer,” said Terri Lang, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

The fall weather forecast is based on both Canadian and American predictions.

“There’s a consensus across most of the models that it will be a warmer than average fall, so that’s sort of what we go with,” she said.

WILL IT RAIN?

It is hard for ECCC to predict if there will be a wet fall. Precipitation patterns in the fall aren’t nearly as clear, because there are no systems like El Nino or La Nina established yet for the year.

“(El Nino or La Nina are) forecast to start developing, but not until late into the fall. So we don’t really have a system to kind to say, ‘OK because of this, we think that,” Lang said.

THIS WEEK’S COOLER TEMPERATURES

This week was a bit chilly, and according to ECCC, that is completely the normal for this time of year.

“It’s that time of year when we’re losing the daylight hours quite quickly and when that happens, we start getting longer nights and we lose more of the heat,” Lang said.

The jet stream will also be over Saskatchewan for the next week. It directs where the low pressure systems go — which brings rain and thundershowers with it.

SEPTEMBER IS THE BEST MONTH

September, on average, has been found to be one of the best months weather-wise on the Prairies, according to Lang.

“We have the nice, cool nights but we can still get the warm, warm days, plus the bugs are gone. We can get sort of a frost or two in there. It helps take care of the bugs as well,” Lang said.

However, with weather, nothing is set in stone and the forecasts can easily change.