It's been a crazy month for Dauphin and the area: first, life-changing rainfall and flooding that affected countless residents, and then a heat event that saw temperatures feel as hot as 45 degrees.
Terri Lang, Meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that's definitely not common anywhere in Manitoba.
"This was an extension of the heat dome that sat over the United States and has been sitting over the United States, it just kind of built into southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan as well, and when these things come in they can be quite intense...still a lot of moisture as well sitting around, which really bumped up those humidex values. Because the summer has been relatively cool, on the cool side, not a lot of heat, I think this particular heat event felt particularly warm, especially with how high the humidex values were," said Lang.
According to the Weather Centre of Manitoba, last weekend's heat event saw temperature records either tied or broken at eleven different weather stations across the province. In the Parkland, Swan River tied their record of 33.9 degrees set in 1964, Shoal Lake set a new record of 32.9 degrees, beating the old record of 29.4 degrees from 1964, and McCreary set a new record high of 36.5 degrees, smashing the old record of 32.0 degrees set in 1979.
Lang said this heat event was definitely made worse by recent rains and flooding, leading to standing water in large parts of the area. Plus, with crops growing as fast as they are, they're putting off a lot of moisture, which also greatly contributed to the humidity.
"There was a contribution from standing water of course, but there's also a huge contribution from the crops that are growing, they give off a tremendous amount of moisture, and right now they're in a peak growing situation, so they're giving a lot of moisture...all the rain and everything that we saw in the Dauphin area in June, which was the third wettest June on record, wasn't just one system, it was a series of systems," said Lang.
With far extremes on both ends of the summer weather spectrum, it's safe to say it's highly unlikely that Dauphin will have another summer like this for a very long time.
