Waterloo Region Record

It’s been wet … now get ready for the heat

The weather’s been great — if you’re a duck. But the dog days are around the corner

- Record staff

WATERLOO REGION — Get ready for an extended break from all the rain.

“Not too many storms in the next couple weeks,” Frank Seglenieks, coordinato­r of the University of Waterloo weather station, said on Monday. “More on the dry side.”

The first six months of 2017 have been anything but dry for Waterloo Region. With a total precipitat­ion of 617.8 millimetre­s, it will go down as the second wettest first six months in 100 years of record-keeping. Only the first half of 1947 saw more precipitat­ion, with 624.8 mm.

And June was a pretty wet month, right? Not really. Only seems that way.

“It was pretty dry for that first half,” Seglenieks said. “And then it got wet in the second half, particular­ly the last week.”

But all the rain at the end of June only managed to push the total for the month up to 77.8 mm, which is close to

but a bit below the average of 82.4 mm.

September 2016 is the last month where the amount of precipitat­ion was significan­tly below the monthly average.

“Since then, it’s either been average or above average,” he said.

Starting next week, summer temperatur­es should really start to heat up, Seglenieks predicted.

“When we get more into July, it looks more of the typical July temperatur­es come in closer to the middle of the month,” he said. “We’ll have to see if we continue this streak of being one of the wettest years.”

But despite the soggy finish, June wasn’t any wetter than normal. That may surprise you.

“I’ve always found people have short weather memories,” he said. “If it rained in the last couple days, oh, it must have been rainy the whole month.”

 ?? DAVID BEBEE, RECORD STAFF ?? High water in the Speed River spilled over into Riverside Park in Cambridge last May.
DAVID BEBEE, RECORD STAFF High water in the Speed River spilled over into Riverside Park in Cambridge last May.

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