Most of the province is still waiting for those dreary days of November, because November 2011 did not deliver them. Instead, the month just concluded was bright and warm and the snow waited until the end of the month to be a problem.
Though not quite record-breaking, November 2011 will be remembered as one of the most pleasant in recent history. Province-wide temperatures were from two to four degrees above normal. In most cases, this was the warmest November since 2009, but Ottawa had not been this warm since 1948.
Precipitation wavered between a bit too much to maybe not enough, depending on the location. Kingston set a record for its lowest precipitation in any November (33.4 millimetres) and Sudbury reported a record low amount of only 1.4 centimetres of snowfall. Most locations in the province reflected low snowfall values, but there were a few locations reporting amounts slightly higher than normal. None of these came close to breaking any records.
Windsor was the rainfall capital. Though rainfall was quite a bit higher in much of southern Ontario, Windsor received the brunt of the storms. A record single-day total of 75 millimetres, reported on November 29, was equivalent to the amount typically received in Windsor for the entire month.
Severe Weather
Even with the province experiencing milder-than-normal temperatures for the month, there were some storms bringing winter-like conditions. On November 9, an intense low-pressure system moved up from lower Michigan through the Sault Ste Marie area, bringing a combination of different types of precipitation. Rain fell across southern, central and northeastern Ontario from this system, but in areas north of Lake Superior the precipitation fell as snow. By the early morning hours of November 10, the storm had moved off to James Bay, but places like Wawa, Marathon and Geraldton saw 10 to 15 centimetres of snow. Nagagami, to the west of Kapuskasing, reported upwards of 25 centimetres of snow.
Another low-pressure system moved up from the Illinois area on the afternoon of November 22. With temperatures a few degrees above freezing in the southwest, the precipitation fell as rain, however in portions of south central and eastern Ontario temperatures flirted with the freezing mark. As the precipitation spread eastwards during the overnight and early morning hours of November 23, it fell as freezing rain in some of these areas and as snow in extreme eastern Ontario. By late morning, the precipitation had ended across southern Ontario as the low pulled off to the East Coast, but it left behind significant rainfall accumulations in the southwest. Generally, that area received between 20 to 40 millimetres, but the Windsor area received almost 60 millimetres. A number of hours of freezing rain were also reported in south central Ontario, and portions of extreme eastern Ontario saw 10 to 15 centimetres of snow.
The month ended on a very soggy note for southern Ontario, as a slow-moving disturbance tracked south of the lower Great Lakes from November 28-30. Aside from its slow speed, this disturbance also brought a large supply of moisture into southern Ontario from the Atlantic Ocean. Total rainfall accumulations from the storm exceeded 80 millimetres in extreme southwestern Ontario, with many other areas in southern Ontario receiving between 40 and 60 millimetres. A number of records were set for the wettest November 29, as well as the Windsor area setting a record for its single wettest day ever in November. This was also the wettest November on record for Windsor (187.4 millimetres). Windsor also continued to add to its one-year record for most rainfall. It has now received a little over 1,350 millimetres of rain this year, shattering its previous record of 1,121 millimetres, set in 1990.
On a final note, the work of investigating damaging storm events from this past summer has continued. This work resulted in three more tornadoes being added to the tally for this year. The first tornado event to be added occurred on July 16 in the Goose Lake area in northwestern Ontario. This event was rated as a Fujita Scale Zero tornado, with peak winds to 110 kilometres per hour. The second event occurred on September 2 in the Murillo area to the west of Thunder Bay and was rated as a Fujita Scale One tornado, with peak winds between 120 and 170 kilometres per hour. The last event to be added occurred on September 12 in the Missanabie area to the northeast of Wawa and was also rated as a Fujita Scale One tornado. The addition of these events now brings the Ontario tornado total for 2011 to 17. Ontario normally averages 13 tornadoes a year in a season that runs from late April until early October.
Media: For more information, please contact:
Jack Saunders
Communications Advisor
Environment Canada - Ontario
416-739-4785
