It is not your imagination — 2017 has been one of the hottest, driest summers since the 1960s, when officials started keeping local records.
A strong upper ridge of high pressure remained the dominating force through the month of August resulting in the weather that has not helped the already volatile fire danger situation.
The mean monthly temperature was 22.1 degrees, which is 2.1 degrees warmer than normal and makes August 2017 the third warmest August on record with only August of 1967 and 1971 warmer.
The warmest temperature during the month was 36.8 degrees during the afternoon of Aug. 3.
A new daily record maximum temperature was set on Aug. 23 when the thermometer read 35.8 degrees.
Precipitation was significantly lower than usual with only 8.2 millimetres or 27 per cent of the normal amount of 30.4 mm. The precipitation was due to a cold front during the night of Aug. 12 and a following upper trough on the Aug. 13.
The combined July/August period of 2017 is the second driest on record with the summer of 2003 just slightly drier with 8.2 millimetres of rain in comparison to the 9.8 mm of rain this year.
The forecast for the first part of September looks much the same.
