It's been a hot and dry summer and according to Environment Canada and it's not going to change much as we head into autumn.

Kirk Torneby, Meteorologist with Environment Canada, says while it's still to early to tell for sure, current weather models are showing elevated temperatures all the way through until the end of October.

"We've run a seasonal forecast model, which gives us an indication of things are going to match up come the next season.  The run that has captured the fall season, looks like it's looking to be not in great confidence, but it does show that above normal temperatures are looking to be in place for that August, September and October time period."

That's not entirely good news for farmers or those relying on some rainfall in the coming months.

Torneby says the models aren't forecasting much precipitation, much like the summer we've experienced.

"It's been pretty dry and warm through the summer, there's no indications that there's going to be that much change through the next month or so.  For southern Alberta, it looks like high and dry is the prolonged story."

While the weather over the past two months may have seemed unusually hot and dry, Torneby says compared to last year, Canada has actually come closer to our averages.

"Last year we were talking about one of the biggest El Nino patterns on record, we had really cool conditions and all of that stuff associated with it.  This time it looked like more normal conditions existed throughout the summer." Of course that excludes the south west, where Torneby says, the heat was slightly out of the norm. "The one abnormal thing really was western Canada, meaning southern B.C., southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.  They had a very persistent dome of warm air that kind of parked itself in place for the summer, and we didn't see any huge thunderstorms, or big rainfall events.  It's been pretty quiet for the most part."

All in all, it doesn't look like we'll be pulling out the mitts and scarves or preparing for some unusually cool fall weather any time soon.

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