All-time high temperature records set in the Maritimes for June

The beach at Killarney Lake Park in Fredericton on June 19, 2024. (Nick Moore/CTV Atlantic)

From June 18 to 20,, the Maritimes fell under the influence of a “heat dome,” which built up from the eastern United States to extend into Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. A heat dome develops when a stagnant weather pattern consisting of a ridge of high pressure persists for days and sometimes weeks. This allows hot and humid conditions to continuously build under it, like a dome.

Daily high temperature records fell by the dozen in the Maritimes through those days. Some locations set not only June but all-time records.

All-time records:

• Bathurst 37.6 C with records going back to 1972
• Miscou Island 34.1 C with records going back to 1957
• Saint John 34.5 C with records going back to 1871

June records:

• Miramichi 37.2 C with records going back to 1873
• Halifax Airport 34.3 C with records going back to 1953
• Ingonish 34.5 C with records going back to 1950

Average daily temperature finishing above normal for June 2024. (Source: CTV News Atlantic)

June 2024 temperatures and precipitation

Aside from the three-day stretch of record-setting heat, much of the remainder of June had temperatures near to slightly above normal. Average daily temperature for the month finished between one and two degrees above the 30-year climate average.

Rain totals for the month came in near-to-above average. Due to thunderstorms, some localized areas finished with near double the average, including Bas-Caraquet, N.B., and Summerside, P.E.I. Interesting to note both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia observed less lightning than typical for June but lightning was up 131 per cent for Prince Edward Island.

There weren’t many areas short on rain for June. In a few spots localized thunderstorms allowed totals to reach nearly double the monthly average. (Source: CTV News Atlantic)

Ocean temperatures

The surface water temperatures surrounding the Maritimes were near-to-above normal for the month of June. Western parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the greatest anomaly at two-to-three degrees above average. The surface water temperatures closest to average were around the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and near Sable Island.

In the tropical Atlantic, record-setting surface waters contributed to the earliest development of a category five hurricane on record, Hurricane Beryl. More on the rare and dangerous storm along with hurricane categories explained here: https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/category-5-beryl-a-record-setting-and-deadly-hurricane-1.6950272