Yes, April was gloomy, cold and wet. May's start won't be much different, meteorologist says
'People can be forgiven for wondering when summer’s ever going to come,' meteorologist says
If you felt like April was a dreary, cold and wet month, you're not wrong.
Peter Kimbell is a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada. He says the warm temperatures aren't far away from Waterloo region, but they just haven't quite made it here yet.
April, he said, was about 0.7 C cooler than normal.
"20 C was our high for April," he noted. "At this time of the year, the average high is 16 C, so right now we're stuck at 8 C."
Half the days, 15, saw high temperatures in the double digits while there were 16 nights where the temperature dipped below freezing.
The region is experiencing easterly winds right now, he said, but that could shift in the coming days to a southwesterly wind, which will push warm area into the region.
But even that reprieve won't last long.
"We don't really see a whole lot of warm air the next week or so. It's just continuing to be cool, or cooler than average, or at best normal and unstable. So more systems coming through bringing showers," Kimbell said.
Warm air 'will come eventually'
In April, 16 of 30 days saw some kind of precipitation. In total, the region saw 93.3 mm of precipitation, and the majority of that, about 56 mm, fell on three separate days: April 14, 19 and 26.
On average, the region sees 77 mm of rain in April.
"It's wetter than usual and cooler than usual and obviously with the temperature right now … people can be forgiven for wondering when summer's ever going to come," he said.
Kimbell says there is hope.
This weekend will bring some sunshine to the region with a mix of sun and cloud in the forecast for both Saturday and Sunday with highs of 14 C and 17 C, respectively.
And warm temperatures aren't that far away. Windsor is currently seeing temperatures in the high teens, while just south of Lake Erie in Erie, Penn., or Cleveland, Ohio, it was 27 C on Wednesday.
"It doesn't take much before the warm air can come in," he said. "It will come eventually."
