Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, August 15, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The latest cooling trend to hit Yellowknife won't last, according to a meteorologist with Environment Canada's Arctic Weather Centre in Edmonton.

"You kind of had a lousy pattern prevailing for awhile," said Bob Cormier.

Last week saw summer pull a disappearing act as rain and cool winds from the northwest moved in with temperatures into the single digits at night.

However, Environment Canada predicts that while the clouds will remain through August, temperatures will stay above normal thanks to a prevailing western wind that will bring warmer temperatures.

"Our current indications are that there won't be an early autumn," said Cormier.

He summed it up as "Bad news now, good news later."

For precipitation, he said that Environment Canada wasn't certain what the overall forecast for August would be.

The highest temperature recorded in Yellowknife for the month of August occurred in 1984 when the mercury hit 30C.

The coldest August temperature recorded was in 1982 when the thermostat dipped to almost -1C.

The mean average temperature for Yellowknife for August is 14C. So far, the average for this August is 13.3C with the lowest daily average coming on Aug. 10 at 7.8C.