Regina seeing ‘delightfully boring’ summer weather, climatologist says

We’re into the home stretch of summer, with August in full swing. David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment says the summer can so far be described as normal for Regina.

“I hope the weather continues the way it has been, because its been delightfully boring,” Phillips said. “I look at the numbers for Regina in the month of July and my gosh it is very close to normal … Normal temperatures, normal precipitation, even the number of hot days. And June was the same.”

The number of tornadoes that touchdown in Saskatchewan over the summer is always a conversation topic. While some might suggest there have been more tornadoes than usual this season, Phillips said those numbers too have also remained normal.

“On the prairies, even though it looks like a more boisterous kind of a summer, it’s because the last two years have been so quiet,” Phillips explained. ‘You didn’t get really any severe weather last year. There was a whole stretch of two months without a tornado! You’d maybe get 12-13 tornadoes for an average year, but we still have a month to go.”

Phillips said there’s no reason why we shouldn’t believe the weather we’re seeing now is going to be the same for the rest of the season.

“There’s something in weather called persistence. What you see is what you’re going to get, and I think this week looks really warm tomorrow, cools off a couple days, and then next week looks really warm and dry,” he explained. “Farmers and growers have to be so happy this year compared to what they’ve had. It’s been a really good growing season.”

Phillips threw in a fun fact, noting that so far this year the province has recorded 311,000 lightning strikes.