It appears this summer will be warmer than last year.
The season officially arrived at 6:07am Thursday.
Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson says while the first weekend of summer will be cooler than normal, it should heat up in July.
He says it's been a year of extremes.
"From the cold that was relentless in April to a real resurgence of summer-like warmth at the end of May, what seems to be setting up now is a seasonal summer pattern," says Coulson. "Tapping into those hot, humid air masses more often is going to allow us to climb up into the high 20s and low 30s more often, certainly more than we had last summer, and maybe more along the lines of what we saw back in 2016."
The summer solstice in the northern hemisphere is the longest day of the year in terms of daylight. The sun rose at 5:50am EDT and sets at 9:12pm EDT.
Coulson notes Ontario didn't see its first tornadoes until June 13 this year, about a month later than usual.
He cautions though that the record heat and thunderstorms earlier this week is a reminder that the severe weather season is upon us.
"Moving forward I think we can expect to see more of these severe thunderstorms," says Coulson. "We are now fully into the season, and are likely going to start adding to that tornado count as we get into July and August."
