New climate normals: Canada is warmer and drier in most places

Recently, the U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that America’s new normal temperature is a degree hotter than it was just two decades ago. So what about Canada?

The climate normals for each province and territory have been updated as of Jan. 1, and confirm that Canada is getting warmer and drier in most places.

Climate normals are used to describe the average climate conditions for a particular location. You have probably heard the daily weather observations saying temperatures are above or below normal for this time of year. This evaluates how unusual the departure from “normal” or “average” that these observations are.

Each climate normal represents the daily climate observations averaged over a 30-year time period. The World Meteorological Organization — a specialized agency of the United Nations headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, that is responsible for promoting international co-operation in atmospheric science and climatology — recommends updating the “climate normals”” every 10 years.

With the end of the difficult year of 2020, it is time to update Canada’s climate normals. As of Jan. 1, 2021, we can calculate Canada’s new climate normals by averaging 10,958 daily observations from Jan. 1, 1991 to Dec. 31, 2020.

Climate is quite variable. It changes day-to-day, monthto-month, and year-to-year. This makes it difficult to make comparisons. Climate normals are often used to classify a region’s climate — you can compare climate normals between one region and another because you are examining averages of 30 years of climate observations.

These climate normals help people decide where they want to live, what types of crops to grow, what flowers to plant in the garden, how much energy you will need to heat or cool your house, or where you might want to spend a winter vacation.

When summer rains are below the climate normal, it often impacts the yield of agricultural crops; yet it often leads to an increase in tourism as most vacationers enjoy warm and dry weather for their holiday.

While we await the Meteorological Service of Canada’s official climate normal calculations, the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) climate lab updated climate normals for each of the provincial and territorial capitals — the result being that Canada continues to get warmer and drier in most places.

In Newfoundland, the annual mean temperature climate normal increased from 5.00 to 5.22 degrees Celsius which sounds like a small change but the scientific evidence suggests that these small changes are already leading to a range of impacts. These impacts include longer drought conditions, changes to sea level, threatened ecosystems and extreme weather. The temperature increases in Newfoundland are coupled with drier conditions as the annual mean precipitation (rain and snow) climate normal decreased. As temperatures slowly warm and conditions get drier, changes are occurring — growing seasons are getting longer, ski seasons are getting shorter, and forest fires are getting more frequent.

It is worth noting that the climate normal changes observed are not spread evenly around the country, but they do point to the effects that a creeping climate change is having on our country — mainly a warmer and drier Canada.

“In Newfoundland, the annual mean temperature climate normal increased from 5.00 to 5.22 degrees Celsius which sounds like a small change but the scientific evidence suggests that these small changes are already leading to a range of impacts.”