The colourful fall season is upon us.
Autumn officially arrives on Tuesday, September 22 at 8:04 p.m.
It's expected to be a drier and slightly cooler start to the season according to Environment Canada Meteorologist Geoff Coulson.
"In the near term at least for the coming week and into next week, it looks like a continuation of the weather pattern we've had recently with temperatures a little on the cool side for the next couple of days," said Coulson. "But then we do get back to more seasonal temperatures by mid-week into the coming weekend."
The fall equinox will usher in shorter days until the winter solstice on December 21.
"As we get into the last few days of September and into the month of October, it becomes more likely we're going to be dealing with single digit overnight lows," said Coulson. "In fact, the average daytime high by mid-October is 15 Celsius, the average overnight low about 5 C, so getting into these single digit overnight low temperatures is something we'll be seeing more as we finish off September and head into October."
Coulson noted that along with the slightly cooler temperatures to start the fall season, we'll see very little precipitation.
"No major shift in the pattern expected that we're experiencing right now," he said. "But certainly the further we get into October there's going to be more chance of those big fall storms and potential for significant rainfall."
Looking further ahead, Coulson said a very strong El Nino building in the Pacific Ocean is expected to influence fall and winter weather patterns right across southwestern Ontario, with the biggest impact potentially being milder than normal conditions.
"And the longer range forecast at this point both for November and December, point to that trend of warmer-than-normal conditions," Coulson said.
