May a roller coaster of temperatures in Sioux Lookout 

Tim Brody - Editor

Temperatures in Sioux Lookout during the month of May ranged from a new record low of minus 5.9 degrees Celsius to a high of 28.7 degrees Celsius according to Environment Canada.

Speaking with The Bulletin on May 28, Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Peter Kimbell explained that, “On the 26th of May, we had a temperature of minus 2.3 in the morning, which does not beat a record for the coldest May 26, that record was minus 2.8 held by both 1961 and 1917. The 27th of May, we got down to minus 5.9 which is a new record. The coldest I found was minus 5.6 in 1917 and minus 2.8 in 1947.”

Kimbell said May 28 got down to minus 2.8, which equaled the temperature in 1947 of minus 2.8, but he found there was a low of minus 4.4 in 1917. 

As for warm weather, Kimbell said, “The warmest day was the 18th of the month at 28.7 and the record for the 18th was 30.6 in 1941 and 1972.” 

Despite the temperature shifts, Kimbell said, “It turns out that even with the cold of the recent days, the mean temperature for the month of May is actually pretty close to normal, because we had so much heat in the middle of the month.”

He explained that the mean temperature this May was 9.6 degrees Celsius and the average mean temperature for May is 10.2 degrees Celsius.

Asked about precipitation this May, he concluded, “It was quite dry for quite some time and then we got hit with a couple of days of wet weather on the 20th and the 22nd, so it brought us to 77 millimetres of precipitation for the month. The normal for the month of May is 86 (millimetres of precipitation), so pretty close to normal.”