Not much relief from the heat
Persistent temperatures are taking a toll on Niagara communities
After weeks of excessive temperatures and almost no rainfall, weather forecasts don’t offer much relief in the days to come.
Environment Canada meteorologist David Phillips said temperatures in Niagara have consistently been above average for the past 13 days, with very little precipitation, and although the forecast calls for showers this weekend they likely won’t provide the rainfall farmers need — or do much to reduce the heat.
While Phillips said Niagara has yet to break any temperature records this summer, he said the persistent heat is significant.
“We have already had in the Niagara area about 13 days where the temperature has been above 30 C ... And we’re not even into the dog days of summer yet,” he said.
Normal high temperatures in early July are about 27 C.
“Last summer, we probably only had four or five of those days,” Phillips said.
The weekend forecast calls for a high of 27 C on Saturday, but Phillips said that won’t provide much relief from the heat. And by the middle of next week, the temperature is expected to be back above 30 C. Phillips expects more of the same in weeks to come.
“We’ll be counting the number of days above 30 C right up until Labour Day,” he said.
Phillips said even overnight temperatures have remained in the high 20s, “and that becomes more of a health issue.”
“Morning, noon and night we can’t escape it,” he said.
Municipalities throughout Niagara have opened venues where people can escape the heat.
The St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatics Centre is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., while other facilities and churches are running dropin centres.
Niagara Falls has opened two cooling centres, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Gale Centre and the LaMarsh Room at the Victoria Avenue public library branch.
In Welland, people can visit the transit terminal on East Main Street from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
While those initiatives help get people out of the heat, Start Me Up Niagara executive director Susan Venditti said they don’t replace locations that people would typically visit that have been closed due to the pandemic.
“Your normal places, they’re definitely missed,” she said.
Because the Out of the Heat
program was cancelled due to the coronavirus, Venditti said there is nowhere for marginalized people to spend nights.
“People are sleeping in doorways. They are not doing well. People need places to go and places to live.”
Niagara’s farmers are starting to worry, too.
“You’re seeing crops are suffering,” Phillips said. “There are some areas in Toronto, for example, where in the last 20 days they’ve had a thimble full of rain … The ground is drying out and crops are beginning to feel it.”
Since May, Niagara has only had about 40 per cent of the precipitation it typically receives in that time period, Phillips said.
Niagara Association of Agriculture vice-president Albert Witteveen said local farms remain in “pretty good shape” despite the minimal rainfall. He said the wheat harvest is days away and farmers are expecting a good yield.
He said local strawberries are more flavourful this year because the region has not experienced excessive rainfall.
But other crops “probably need an inch or two of rain.”
“We’re all hoping for that rain in the next week or two. Hopefully, we will see rain this month and things will just go to town again,” said Witteveen, a regional councillor for West Lincoln.
While there are showers in the forecast for the days ahead, Phillips said “it’s not the rescue rains we need.”
“It won’t be enough to correct the situation. It might be enough to keep the dust down and to wet the ground.”