‘Summer weekend’ arrives in time for fall

WATERLOO REGION — Welcome to fall. Please pass the suntan lotion.

The summer swelter missing from August is finally about to arrive, just as autumn begins at 4:02 p.m. on Friday.

“The people who have been waiting for a ‘summer weekend’ — well, they have to wait until the first couple days of fall to find it,” said Frank Seglenieks, coordinator of the University of Waterloo weather station where local records date back to 1915.

“But it’s actually going to be upon us.”

Temperatures could hit 30 C on the weekend — something that’s only happened twice over the last 50 years during the last half of September, and not since Sept. 25, 2007.

“If we get two days in a row, that would be the first time since 1955 we’ve had two 30-degree days in a row in the second half of September,” Seglenieks said.

Thursday was the 10th straight day temperatures have topped 25 C in Waterloo Region. At Victoria Park in Kitchener, footballs were tossed in 28 C afternoon sunshine. Frisbee golf was played. People, young and old, sat on park benches and counted ducks and geese. Some even fed a swan.

But the 10th straight day surely won’t be the last.

The forecast could bring 15 or 16 days in a row of temperatures over 25.

“That is totally unprecedented in September,” Seglenieks said.

“The most I’ve ever found is 13 days above 25 in September. And that was at the beginning of September. To have 16 days above 25 this late in the month, that is kind of crazy.”

So why has all this warm and humid craziness taken hold? The weather pattern that kept us cool in August has flip-flopped, Seglenieks explained.

“From mid-August to midSeptember, the jet stream was just in such a pattern that it was warmer out west, cooler out east. Now, we’ve switched around. The jet stream is in a different position. Now, we’re getting all this warm air from the south and the western part of North America is getting the cooler air from the north.”

Next week is expected to begin with temperatures in the high-20s and end with temperatures in the mid-20s. Seglenieks said, over the past 20 years, September in Waterloo Region has regularly featured above average temperatures.

“We’ve definitely seen a shift into warmer Septembers the past couple decades.”