Environment Canada is describing it as a ‘see-saw’ summer across Windsor-Essex when it comes to the temperatures. Meteorologist Eric Tomlinson says overall, the area saw a pretty typical summer when you look at the picture as a whole, but it doesn’t tell the entire story of what happened between June 1 and August 31. “We had a few significant heat waves during the summer, notably at the beginning of June when temperatures were well above average and into the low 30s, which was earlier than you’d expect for the Windsor area. Then we had that significant heat wave at the beginning of July around Canada Day,” he says. He says on July 1, the temperature hit 36 Celsius, just below the July 1 heat record of 36.6 Celsius set in 1898. Tomlinson says typically the region sees around 33 days per year with temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius. “Between June and August, we had 23 of those already. Definitely significant in terms of how many times we reached 30 degrees Celsius, but it’s not something we don’t see that often in Windsor. It’s quite common to reach 30 degrees Celsius,” he says. Tomlinson says when it was hot, it was really hot. “Especially that July 1 heat wave that lasted four or five days. That’s not something we see every year, and we did have orange heat warnings out, which was the first time that those were sent out across Southern Ontario from our site on Environment Canada,” he says. Tomlinson says from mid-July and into August, the daytime high temperatures really fluctuated between the mid-20s and the low 30s, which is typical for the Windsor area.
