Above average rainfall amounts for July: Environment Canada

In July, Moose Jaw saw its fair share of rain in the month, with the majority of it coming over the Saskatchewan Day long weekend says Environment Canada Meteorologist Natalie Hasell.

“Your total precipitation for the month of July was 68.2 millimetres,” says Hasell. “The busiest days were July 19 with 11 millimetres, 10.5 on the 30th, 13 on the 31st, and a few others days here and there that got some precipitation.”

She notes for July, Moose Jaw was just above the average precipitation totals, which is 63 millimetres, and ranks amongst the middle of the pack in comparison to previous years.

July’s rain was much-needed after only receiving 34 per cent of its average precipitation in June recording only 24.9 mm, which made it the 13th driest June in 129 years.

Moose Jaw received the second-lowest amount of rain in the province for June, ahead of Regina which only saw 13.1 mm of precipitation fall. Swift Current was just above Moose Jaw with their rainfall totals, seeing only 31.2 mm.

In late spring, Environment Canada predicted a cooler and milder summer, which stayed true in the month of July. The month only saw a handful of days above the 30-degree mark, which is a relief as the last two summers have seen drought-like conditions.

“Looking at daytime temperatures, the hottest temperatures we saw was 35.2 and this happened in the middle of a stretch of hot days from the 15th to the 17th, but there were a number of other days temperatures were above 30 degrees.”

In total there were seven days throughout the month of July where temperatures exceeded 30 degrees, and according to Canadian Climate data, the average in Moose Jaw is 5.6 days.

In terms of mean temperatures, which is the average from both the daytime and nighttime highs combined, Hasell explains it was right around the average usually seen in the month.

“The average mean temperature for the month of July was 19.2 degrees. When we look at our Canadian Climate norms the temperature for July on average is 19.3 and the standard deviation is 1.4. Looking at daytime and nighttime temperatures across the month of July you were pretty much right on normal.”

The heat and possible rain with thundershowers are in the forecast for Tuesday afternoon into the evening and possibly into Wednesday as well.