First frost is typically only four weeks away, says climatologist

The recent cool weather is a sign of things to come.

There’s no delaying the inevitable, said Environment Canada’s senior climatologist David Phillips — summer is winding down.

“All that wishing, hoping and praying won’t keep the cool weather away,” Phillips told The Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.

“Typically on average, you get your frost around the 10th of September. We haven’t had that yet. We may not get it until the second week of September.”

Phillips said the amount of daylight is decreasing by four minutes each day.

He said the sun is now setting two hours 15 minutes earlier than it did during the summer solstice on June 21.

Reflecting on the summer that was, Phillips said there hasn’t been a single weather event that stood out.

He called it the year that Mother Nature left people alone.

“I think the big story for me was the flooding in Ottawa. At one time, maybe drought on the Prairies. My gosh, it’s been raining June, July, August. We’ve had more rain than normal,” he said.

“It hasn’t been so cold, (with only) 12 days where the temperature has been above 30 Celsius. It has been rather quiet.”