ADVERTISEMENT

Climate and Environment

Wintry weather hits parts of Canada as a 'gentle reminder' of upcoming colder seasons

Published: 

Tornado confirmed in Saskatchewan WATCH: Officials confirm the wild weather in central Saskatchewan produced a zero-rating tornado.

While snowfall during the summer may seem unusual to southern Canadians, the North is well equipped for the snow expected to hit this week.

The Weather Network is predicting a wet snowfall for parts of Nunavut on Wednesday night, as rising precipitation and colder-than-normal temperatures are expected.

Iqaluit, Igloolik, Naujaat and Kugaaruk are some of the parts of Northern Canada experiencing low pressure that will likely bring temperatures to drop 2 to 5 degrees below normal overnight. According to Travel Nunavut, temperatures in August can reach as low as 2 degrees Celsius in some parts of the territory. However, Environment Canada meteorologist Sarah Hoffman said if the snow does fall it’ll likely be gone as quickly as it arrived.

“We're looking at above zero temperatures in Iqaluit, so it's gonna be really hard for snow to accumulate and persist,” she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Wednesday.

  • Climate Barometer newsletter: Sign up to keep your finger on the climate pulse

While it may seem unusual to see an early snowfall this time of the year, especially since Canada has been experiencing warmer weather than usual recently, Hoffman said there’s always a chance for snow in the colder parts of the country.

“Calgary has had snow reported in every month of the year; June, July and August have all had snow reported. So it's not super uncommon in Canada for snow to happen even in the summer,” she said.

While the Farmer’s Almanac predicted earlier this month that Canada is expected to see record-breaking cold temperatures this winter, David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada, said these one-off events like earlier snowfall aren’t indicators of what the upcoming seasons will be like.

  • 5 Things to Know newsletter: Sign up to start your day with the biggest stories

“It gives you no heads up for what’s in store for us. It could be an early winter, it could be a late winter but that’s certainly not governed by snow appearing in the high Arctic,” Phillips told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday in a phone interview.

Environment Canada has been reporting warmer temperatures for the majority of the country in September, Phillips said, so there’s still time to enjoy what’s left of summer while also preparing for the upcoming colder months.

“It's sort of a reminder for ‘you better get your snow tires on,’ ‘you better put away that lawn furniture.’ It's nature's way of giving us a little bit of a reminder,” he said.

Correction

A previous verison of this story erroneously referred to Naujaat as Repulse Bay.