After a very mild and inactive winter – and warmer than normal spring – summer weather is already hitting Toronto.

While summer technically only kicked off June. 21, David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, says they count summer’s entrance at the start of the month and running through the end of August.

With the warm weather already in full force – much of the province just got out of a heat wave – Phillips notes that we’re in for many more days with high temperatures. In fact, he notes that it isn’t just Toronto that will see this trend, with most of the country experiencing a warm summer.

“When we look at this particular pattern of June, July, and August, we’re calling for it to be warmer than normal in Ontario. And that, of course, would be Toronto and around the great lakes area. In fact, most of the country except the pacific coast is looking like it’s going to be warmer than normal.”

While many may be bracing for more days of 30 degree weather, Phillips adds that summer temperatures have been warmer than normal for a much longer period than most would expect.

“But you know, when you look at a lot of the summers in the last several years have been warmer than normal. We see [the] climate has changed. I think if we went look at Canada wide, the last cool summer we had was 20 years ago. So, they’ve all been warmer than normal. And we know last year not in Toronto, not in Ontario. But we know that all across Canada, that May to September period was the warmest on record.”

Compared to last year, Ontario is deemed to have more days above 30 degrees. In summer 2023, Ontario registered only eight days with temperatures above 30 degrees, half of what was expected compared to the year before.

Phillips warned about the dangers of hotter days with temperatures exceeding 30, which can be very dangerous for people with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses.

“So, my sense is, hey, if you like your summer warm, I think it’ll be warmer than last year. I think we’ll have to see more days above 30 than we saw last year. It’ll be more consistent… but it’s those days above 30 that really are unhealthy days that take a toll on people who have health issues, like elderly people and then people with certain cardiovascular or respiratory illnesses, people who don’t have air conditioning or fans, they often find the uncomfortableness of summer,” he said. “This is a period that Canadians most often feel that they’re owed good summers because we deal with the kind of winters we have. We are a cold country, a snowy country.”

While Toronto is expected to have more dry days this summer – and by extension the potential for frequent heat waves – Phillips says that Atlantic provinces are under the risk of seeing more hurricanes. He says La Nina can be attributed to this potential uptick.

“Forecasters have said this looks to be one of the most active hurricane tropical storm seasons on record. That is at least the forecast. But those typically stay along the coast. They sometimes can come inland. And this is the 75th anniversary of Hurricane Hazel back in October of 1954. So hey, we know that we have been affected by at least the remnants of Tropical storms. But I don’t think that should necessarily create fear in the hearts of Torontonians.”