April chills brings May shivers to Hamilton area

That 20 C Sunday was a cruel joke for Hamilton-area residents hoping the warm weather was here to stay.

We had a couple nice days, but according to Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell, that’s not going to continue.

He said the next few weeks are going to be cold, a trend that continues from April. April’s mean temperature was a chilly 5.3 C at John C. Munro Hamilton International Arport. That’s about 1.5 C below normal. The normal daytime high for this time of year is 17 C. We’re looking at 6 C below normal Monday, and those temperatures are falling.

Tuesday’s forecast is calling for a chilly daytime high of 9 C, followed by 7 C Wednesday. On Thursday, the temperature is expected to pick up slightly, with 14 C forecast, but with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

From there the cool weather “just goes on,” Kimbell says. It could last even to the end of next week. We’re looking at a weather system “from the north,” that he says is “plaguing most of Ontario.”

“Another quote is ‘polar vortex,’” Kimbell said.

What that means is there’s one cold system here now. Then after a brief relief, another cold weather system will hit.

Friday night could bring in another chilly record, with a low of -1 C in the forecast. The temperature record for May 8 was -0.6 C in 1974.

Kimbell expects that the forecasted temperature numbers could fall as we get closer.

On the positive, he says, we’re not likely to get “real” snowfall in the Hamilton area, though they are expecting snow in eastern Ontario and Quebec. Though, Environment Canada is calling for a chance of flurries Friday night.

The single day snowfall record for Hamilton in May was 11 centimetres, way back on May 7, 1989.

But gardeners waiting on planting season should still hold off for the time being, because of that five letter word that starts with an “F.” With evening lows in the negatives several times this week, frost is a near certainty.