WEATHER FORECAST: Warm and dry

SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO — Despite a cooler and wetter summer than average, the weather outlook for Southwestern Ontario happily suggests warm, dry conditions for the coming fall harvest, according to Environment Canada senior climatologist David Philips.

Summer weather often sets the expected pattern for fall, but Philips says that Environment Canada’s autumn “outlook” doesn’t comply with that rule of thumb this year. “I couldn’t think of a more ideal fall coming up,” he says. “It looks like September is going to come out to be warmer than a normal September in Ontario.”

While precipitation is much more difficult to predict, the federal agency’s latest maps nonetheless show dryer than normal conditions coming up, he says. “So my very short forecast would be warm and dry, and my sense is that farmers are going to like it.”