Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Hot and Stormy

We broke the record today in Toronto for heat, peaking at 33.3 degrees Celsius, with a humidex rating of 42 degrees.  The old record was 32.2, set in 1950.

The heat brought storms to Ontario.  According to the news, 73,000 people in central Ontario are without power after storms passed through this afternoon.  Then Toronto and areas just east of the city got hit in the early evening tonight, with both storms resulting in some areas reporting possible tornadoes.  On a sad note, one of our neighbours at the cottage reports via Facebook that there are at least 100 mature trees knocked down in our area from this storm system.  My mom is planning to drive up tomorrow to make sure none of those trees are lying across our property!

I was out for a walk between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. with a group from the Running Room in Port Credit (on the western end of the city) and all we saw were very black clouds to the east of us.  We picked up the pace as we were finishing our 5 km walk, thinking we were about to get wet, but luckily we missed the stormy weather altogether.  Our route took us along the lakefront which helped to keep us cool, although it was weird to walk through different pockets of really hot and then cooler air.  I had started drinking water mid-afternoon, so I was well hydrated and didn't really feel the heat too badly, surprisingly.  A few of us treated ourselves to some refreshing gelato afterwards (mmm, half a scoop each of lemon and chocolate!) which, although it might seem counterproductive, was really the only way to celebrate the end of this delightfully HOT day!!

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