An Inconvenient Truth - Cold summer sets 10-year record

IF IT were a battle between rain and shine this summer, those who bet on cooler, wetter weather would be walking home with fuller pockets now— albeit soggy ones. This year marks the coolest start to summer in a decade, and also the most consecutive days of rain.


For two weeks past solstice, the average high has been 16 C and the average overall temperature hovered around 12.5 C.

The hottest and only day that reached above 20 C so far was June 27 which hit a high of 25 C. It's also the only dry day summer has brought yet.

For the other 14 days — until July 5 — 30 mm of rain fell overall.

Despite this summer's record of most rainy days, the amount of water to hit the ground so far falls on the last decade's median. The record was set in 2003 when a few downpours totaled 71.1 mm of rain. But 2011 brought with it the most rain since 2005.

Making this year seem even worse are record temperature highs that marked the summer season in 2010 and 2009.This day last year set a record high in Terrace since the 1970s at 32.6 C.

And although summer 2009 kicked off its first few days with showers and highs of around 16 C, July 2nd brought with it a high of 25 C— the first of a five day heat wave, ending summer's second week at 28
And while there's little hope for a quick turnaround in the next few days — as forecasts show chances of rain until Monday, and mostly clouds until Wednesday — not all is lost.

Based on a 10-year trend, the hottest, driest days are yet to come.

The first heat wave that comes to stay historically starts in the middle weeks of July.