Yes, Virginia, there is a summer

If you think our summer’s been bad (and you’re right), it’s been even colder and more dreary north of the border.

I just caught a little back and forth on the CBC with a Canadian meteorologist. He said across Ontario, July is four degrees (Celsius!) cooler than normal. He also said Nunavut has been warmer, on average, than Toronto lately.

You know Nunavut. On most maps, it’s the perma-white band of northern Canada, next door to Greenland. They recorded three centimeters of snow there over the past 24 hours.

And Torontonians are shivering with envy.

The meteorologist compared this summer to “the summer that wasn’t.” For most of the northern hemisphere, this was 1992. Mt Pinatubo in the Phillipines erupted the year before and sent so much ash skyward, it lowered average temperatures by almost 2 degrees Celsius and caused more rain than normal.

So what’s behind our current cold summer? The meteorologist blames a swirling low pressure “mass” that’s sitting over Ontario (and us). He said it’s like a big stone in the eddy of a river that just isn’t moving.

But, like forecasters with the U.S. National Weather Service, he says we should have a nice fall.

And, like so many scientists now facing pointed skepticism over predictive modeling, the Canadian meteorologist says this low pressure mass has little or nothing to do with climate change.

In short, what we’re experiencing is weather not climate. At least, not yet.

What’s the difference between weather and climate? Well, you’re online. Look it up or just click here.