WeatherSummaryforOntario-April2023:Mid-MonthRecordWarmth

Temperatures

As in March, April showed both warm andcoldanomalies,buttheyweremostlylarger and longer lasting in magnitude. For the second week,verywarmtemperaturesoccurredoverthe whole province especially in the south with temperaturesnear30oC.Numerousrecordswere broken over most of the province such as in Oakville and Baldwin on the 13th reaching 31.0oC.Somelocationssawconsecutivedaysof recordwarmth.Thefirstweekwasrathercoolin thenorthbutwarmintheGTAandthesouthwest.

For the third week, the above average warmth continued in the south, whereas in the north a moderate colder than normal pattern began. Coldertemperaturesprevailedandintensifiedin the last week province wide, particularly in the southwestwheremaximumdailytemperaturesin Windsorwereasmuchas9oCbelowaverage.

Precipitation

Mean monthly precipitation amounts werenearorabovenormalformostoftheprovince with a noticeable dry period during the strong warm event. From the map below, there aretwoareasofwellabovenormalprecipitation inthenorthlocatedintheNickelBeltaswellas from Thunder Bay northeast to Hudson Bay where anomalies for the month were nearly 200% (near Thunder Bay). In the south, most areas received more than half of their average monthlyprecipitationinthefirstweek.

Thestrongestanomaliescanbeseenfrom eastofGeorgianBaytoOttawawhereasystemin the last week produced widespread, prolonged heavy rains which contributed to monthly precipitation anomalies of ~150% for Ottawa.Significantsnowamountsfellduringthe firstweeknorthoftheNickelBelt,andthroughoutthemonthinthenorthwestandthefarnortheast. Monthly snowfall was above normal for most of western Northern Ontario and northeast ofSudbury.SouthwestofKenora,~300%ofthe monthlyaveragesnowwasmeasured.

SignificantEvents

April1:ASpringStormThatWasNoJoke AspringstormtrackedthroughtheGreat LakesbeginningonMarch31andbroughtamix of rain, thunderstorms, freezing rain and snow. Strongtoseverethunderstormsaffectedpartsof southwestern Ontario, with pea- to grape-size hail and strong wind gusts of 80 to 100 km/h.A band of scattered power outages occurred from Windsor to Niagara, due to the wind gusts. Rainfall of 30 to 60 mm was reported across much of southwestern Ontario, with Mossley, just London, reporting the most rainfall: 73.7 mm. In London, several encampments of people experiencing homelessness were washed away from the banks of the Thames River. Minor flooding was reported near the GrandRiverandintheHamilton area.Aband of scattered power outages, likely related to freezing rain and snowfall, occurred along the north shore of the North Channel and extended to southofNorthBay. Significant snow events were declared in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, where 30 cm and 17 cm of snowfall, respectively, were reported. Northeastern Ontario experienced several highway closures and public transit cancellationsforseveralhours.

April5-6:WinterandSummer Weather Hit the Province Again

AColorado Low affected most of Ontario, bringing a winter storm to northern Ontario, an ice storm to northeasternandeasternOntario,and significant rainfall to most of southern Ontario. There werealsonumerousthunderstormsacross the province associated with snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain. Ottawa, Sudbury, and Petawawa had 9, 8, and 7 hours respectively of freezingrainandicepellets.Thestormdamaged hundredsoftreesineasternOntario,causingone fatalityanddamagetosomehomesandvehicles. Widespread power outages also occurred, with approximately190,000customerswithoutpower at the peak. Nearly all school buses in eastern Ontario were cancelled and several flights were cancelled at the Ottawa International Airport. There were school cancellations as well as closures to recreation and cultural facilities. Multiple highways across northern Ontario saw closuresduetopoorroadandweatherconditions, and flooding on a few Greater Toronto Area highways caused lane closures. Some low-lying roadsalongsideriversandcreekswerefloodedin eastern Ontario, as well. Beatrice, Kemptville, and Wiarton each reported over 60 mm of rain, andMorrisburg,Algonquin,MuskokaandParry Sound each received over 50 mm. Kenora reported27cmofsnowfall,alongwithKeewatin at22cmandRedLakewith17cm.

April

16-17:

Snow and Freezing Rain Affect CentralOntario

A slow-moving low pressure system tracked over northeastern Ontario, bringing widespreadsnow,icepellets,andfreezingrainto northern Ontario.This led to rural bus cancellations and school closures for several school boards in Thunder Bay and the north shore of LakeSuperior. Highway 17 from Shabaquawas closedduetoweatherconditions.

OutlookforMay

Thereisageneralagreementthatthefirst week of May could see higher than normal precipitation in southern Ontario and normal elsewhere.Beyondthefirstweek,however,there is no consistent signal for precipitation. While someguidancewouldsuggestnormalvalueswill occur throughout the month, others predict less than normal precipitation from Kenora to North Bay. The forecast temperatures for the entire month of May are inconsistent between various sourcesofguidance.

While one predicts the month will be below normal in terms of temperatures for the entire province, except along Hudson Bay and James Bay, another shows an overall trend of above-normal temperatures, particularly in northwesternOntario.

Lastweekssolutions

Moments In Time

OnMay17,1861,thefirstcolorphoto,ofatartan ribbon, was taken by Thomas Sutton and Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell,byphotographingitthreetimesthrough red, blue and yellow filters before combining the imagesintoasinglecolorcomposite.

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