SSShhhh, let me be sotto-voce about this, let me stay under the radar, but this year, in this neck of the woods (city of Edmonton in north/central Alberta) we are having perfect weather. I am attempting to be discreet because I am not and do not want to sound like a climate-change-denier, (hey, I marched with Greta) or not be sensitive to all those people in so many places who are having a tough and sometimes desperate time with the effects of climate change.
In this area, we are used to weather extremes as our way of life. You say Canada, people think, rightly of cold and extreme cold and we also have some hot hot days and in the east central (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto) extreme high humidity in the summer.
This year, here, our weather report: winter we had some days of fearsome cold, but that is no surprise here, a few of those dangerously chilling days are expected, indeed they are part of our identity. In fact, if we don’t get a few of them, we feel things are all wrong, which they are. We need them to keep things in order, for example, like killing off the pine-beetle larvae that lurk in the sap of the pine trees. Then we had an early dry spring, which is normal too and it gives the nay-sayers an opportunity for their reflex remark: “We desperately need rain!” Wishes and prayers granted, along came lots and lots of lovely rain in June and early July. Since then, we have had blue skies, good heat and some pleasant rain. Perfect. Some of those days were nudging high 20s and aspiring into 30C, but we usually have a few of those days, nothing new there.
And I am not the only one thinking this, people are saying rather cautiously “Such a lovely summer.”
But to the south, there is a drought, to the west in British Columbia, their usual forest fires, worst these last few years, lots worse.
Our weather has changed, but one good feature is that we are getting more rain. This does mean change – what is that green stuff appearing on my wood deck? Next, there will be mold…
A local friend is spending the summer in the London UK area and I was concerned when we heard about the extreme heat days they were suffering. However, she commented: “Good thing about being a Canadian is that we are used to extreme weather and how to manage it.”
And this year must be fine as I actually heard a farmer say, that because of the good growing conditions, his Taber corn (a favoured and special corn on the cob) is excellent this year. Did I hear right? A happy farmer….now that is extreme.