People from the tourism industry across Grey and Bruce got the latest on increasingly weird weather from the top man in climatology and the Weathering the Economy Regional Tourism Conference in Saugeen Shores.
Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips says the climate hasn’t changed as much as most people think, but acknowledges that the cycle of our weather has become less and less predictable.
Phillips says for tourism operators, it’s a crapshoot when they’re trying to have an idea of what the weather will be like during their peak seasons.
As for the approaching winter, Phillips says it’s likely going to be warmer in Grey-Bruce than in the past couple of years because of the El Nino effect in the Pacific Ocean.
He says there will be more open water on the Great Lakes, meaning snow will arrive early and stay later, but there might not be as much as in the last two years.
Looking back to the F2 tornado that hit Durham on August 20, Phillips says he can’t say it’s part of a climate-change related trend.
He says it was a record-setting year with 26 tornados, with most happening on the day the one hit Durham, but it’s impossible to forecast what next year will be like.
Phillips says the amount of tornado activity has always been unpredictable in Southern Ontario.
He believes climate change and global warming aren’t caused only by human activity, but a combination of those things and the forces of nature.