It was positively sweltering in Montreal in the month of July — and the weather office suggests there could be more of the same to come in August.
With a few hours left in the month, Environment Canada says the mean temperature for July in Montreal — the average of day and night temperatures — was 24.2 degrees at Trudeau airport.
That's three degrees above normal, and that would make July of 2018 the warmest ever recorded at the airport, since records began being kept there in 1941.
But back in July 1921, a mean temperature of 24.7 degrees was recorded at the old McGill weather station, whose records stretch back to the 1870s.
Environment Canada's senior climatologist Dave Phillips says the breakdown of those figures is impressive — to say the least.
"You've had 11 days where the temperature has been above 30," Phillips told CJAD 800's Leslie Roberts. "You normally would get four of those, and last July, you had none."
He also notes there were 13 days where the humidex reading topped 35 degrees, and 13 nights this month where the temperature topped 20 degrees, usually accompanied by high humidity levels. That, of course, made life miserable — and potentially dangerous — for those trying to sleep without air conditioning.
"You had [no 20-degree nights] last year, and you normally would see three of those in an average kind of July," Phillips says.
Phillips says this summer's blistering heat isn't unique to Montreal, or even the eastern part of North America — around the world, there've been significant heat waves in the Arctic, in Europe, and even in Siberia. "This time it's global. It's every corner of the planet in the northern hemisphere that's been setting records," Phillips says.
In the short term, the month of August will begin with warm, wet weather on Wednesday and Thursday before we slide into yet another mini-heat wave, with temperatures once again topping 30 degrees in the daytime, and humidex levels approaching 40. And Phillips suggests the rest of August in Montreal may be similar to the month we just had.
"We think it will be warmer and wetter than normal in Quebec [in August]. That's what our models are showing," Phillips says.
Looking beyond that, there may be some good news for those who hate winter cold and snow.
"El Niño is brewing, and so my sense is that this winter...it's probably not going to be as cold and as long as last year. But there's no such thing as guaranteed weather in Canada."