May begins damp and cool, but brighter and warmer days are coming soon

A damp start to May is a good thing. 

Following much drier than normal months in March and April, the lakes, rivers and streams were noticeably low in the Maritimes.

Farmers and those with wells were beginning to worry. Firefighters were growing increasingly concerned about the wildfire season.

For parts of the region, the rain on Monday and Tuesday was equal to, or even more, than what fell in the entire month of April. It wasn't enough to make up for the past couple of months, but it will certainly help.

This damp stretch, which will continue for the next couple of days, was certainly needed. However, the cool temperatures we could certainly do without.

With single-digit highs on Wednesday, there's a chance of wet flurries mixing in across north and eastern parts of the Maritimes.

The good news is that there are warmer temperatures coming down the pipeline.

As high pressure builds back into the region through Friday and into the weekend, the spring sunshine will also return. This will help to bump our temperatures back into the double digits and teens.  

Temperatures are looking set to remain near and even or above seasonal into next week.

For context, seasonal in early May is high temperatures in the low double digits and low teens. By the end of the month, we normally see temperatures rising into the mid-to-high teens and even low 20s.

Planting season begins

As temperatures rise over the next few weeks, we'll enter planting season across the Maritimes.

Using our 30-year climate normal data gathered from 1981-2010, you can see that most of the region will see their average last frost date over the next couple weeks.

Environment and Climate Change Canada has announced that the new 1991-2020 normals data will be released over the next few months. I fully expect that the map above will need to be adjusted with earlier dates for the average last frost when the new numbers are published.

At Halifax-Shearwater for example, the 1981-2010 average last frost date was May 3. However, based on my number crunching, that date is now about a week earlier, closer to April 26.

Not surprisingly, the overall number of nights at or below zero has also dropped, especially over the past 10 years. 

It is another sign of our changing climate here in the Maritimes.