Record heat begins to give way in the Maritimes

CTV News

21 hours ago

CTV Atlantic meteorologist Kalin Mitchell is tracking a weather front that will break the heat with showers and thunderstorms by the end of the week.
The latest heat dome toppled record temperatures in the Maritimes on both Monday and Tuesday. Marine air and a weather front from the west will break the heat by Friday. There is a risk of thunderstorms as the weather front moves through.
Record heat
Scorching hot temperatures in the Maritimes set new daily high temperature records in all three Maritime provinces on Monday and Tuesday.
In some cases, the temperatures on Tuesday were even hotter than Monday. Miramichi, N.B., was particularly hot with a new record of 38.6 C set. Many other locations set new records with highs in the low-to-mid 30's.
Few areas in North America have been as hot as the Maritimes through the start of this week. Only the desert areas of the western United States as well as southern Texas were significantly hotter on a regional scale.
Records
New daily high temperature records set in the Maritimes on Tuesday, Aug. 12.
When the heat will break
Heat warnings ended for Halifax County, the Eastern Shore, and Richmond/Cape Breton counties Tuesday. A round of marine air off the Atlantic brought cloudier conditions and fog/drizzle. That will keep temperatures lower for those areas compared to earlier this week. That said, even those areas will feel very warm and very, very humid.
A cold front is moving across Quebec and will approach northern New Brunswick Wednesday evening. Scattered showers and a risk of thunderstorms for northern New Brunswick Wednesday afternoon and night. As the front moves through, the wind will turn northwest and milder air will move in behind it, breaking the set of scorching hot days.
The front moves into southern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island during the day Thursday. Scattered showers with a risk of thunderstorms with it. The higher chance of showers and thunderstorms for Nova Scotia will be Thursday evening and night.
Expectations for rain from the front should be tempered. In many cases a few to several millimetresis are expected in showery conditions. Localized rain totals of 20 to 50 mm are possible in the case of thunderstorms. The thunderstorms will be very hit and miss across the Maritimes.
Rain outlook
Spots of brighter colours on this map (yellows, oranges, reds) indicate thunderstorms will likely accompany the showers set to move through. It will only be in those hit-and-miss thunderstorms that rainfall amounts will likely exceed a few millimetres.
Severe drought
The latest report issued by the Canada Drought Monitor places pockets of Nova Scotia and southeastern New Brunswick in severe drought. Much of the remainder of the Maritimes in conditions analyzed as abnormally dry to moderate drought.
While not unprecedented, Trevor Hadwen, an agroclimate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, notes the region has become exceptionally dry over the last two months. July was particularly dry with some locations reporting the fourth driest July on record. Impacts from the lack of rain include extreme wildfire danger, agriculture stress, dry wells, and in some cases the need for mandatory water restrictions.
Drought map
Analyzed drought conditions in the Maritimes at the end of July by the Canada Drought Monitor.
It will take at least a few months of above normal precipitation for the water table to fully recover in the region. That could take us well into the fall.