Fall 2024 forecast shaping up to bring nicer than normal weather to the city.
Toronto weather has been anything but normal of late, with summer bringing record-breaking rainfall to the city.
The city also experienced higher than normal temperatures, with many days of heatwaves above 30 degrees.
While most people are not quite ready to bid farewell to the summer season, it looks like mother nature is in the same boat, as the fall forecast will seemingly kick off with nicer than normal weather.
Dave Phillips, the senior climatologist for Environment Canada, notes that you can put away most of your summer clothing, but should expect milder weather that will run right into October.
“September, on average, is about five degrees colder than July. So don’t expect it to be muscle shirt and tank top kind of weather in September and October… it’s more, long sleeve sweater weather but overall, we don’t think that nature is going to punish us because of all the warm weather we have.”
For those who were none too pleased with the precipitation we’ve had in the city, Phillips notes it’s a little more difficult to predict what can happen over the next several months.
“It’s hard to get it right, because in the summertime, it can rain in your front yard but not your backyard so, it’s quite variable. So, it really is where that cloud hangs over you and that’s often what happens when we get these heavy amounts of rain, is the storms slow down. The storms are larger, but they slow down and then they just kind of pelt you with lots of rain in your area for several hours. And we saw that in July,” he added.
“We saw that event on the sixteenth of July when the system came in from London and then just for three hours it just rained from 10 [a.m.] to noon, and yet it produced one of the heaviest rainfalls that Toronto has ever seen. That was three hours of rain. It wasn’t like a whole week of rain. It was just three hours. And so that’s what these systems can provide.”
For students who are new to the country – and the wild weather that often graces the forecast – Phillips wants them to embrace it.
“Don’t hide under the bed. Don’t think this is the end of the world. I mean, what you’re going to see here is something that you’ve never seen before. So, what I would do is embrace it and I always say to even locals who have been here their whole life and were born here. Don’t hibernate, don’t migrate. Enjoy engaging in the weather. Get out and enjoy the day and just dress warmly for the conditions or dress lightly for the conditions.”
He also emphasized the importance of always getting a forecast before you go out as the climate today would not be the same as last week.
Despite the unpredictable nature of the weather, Phillips highlighted the charm of the fall season.
“Fall is my favorite time of the year. I think it’ll be a beautiful color change season because the trees have had lots of rain. They’ve had a good amount of moisture. There’s been no stress for them for smoke and drought and things like that. So, they’re all ready to give us that technicolor look and so that’s something that we cherish in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and in southern Ontario. We don’t have to travel very far to see the technicolor look of the fall, and it’s kind of nature’s gift to us and it’s something that we can look forward to. It colors the sky and then we can keep our minds off winter, which seems so far away.”
