What's with all this extreme heat? When the Ontario heat wave will break

It’s almost September, but the last few days of August have seen parts of southwestern Ontario under an extreme heat warning from Environment Canada.

The hot and humid conditions have been extremely uncomfortable, with humidex values upto 40 C and little to no relief with overnight temperatures.

“What’s causing it is basically a strong ridge of high pressure high in the atmosphere,” explained Brett Anderson, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather. “Earlier in the summer it was hanging out across Atlantic Canada. That high pressure is like a big balloon of hot air.”

There hasn’t even been much of a breeze to cool things down. “Our wind flow is coming from the southwest so thats a lot of hot air coming from the Southern U.S. plains – and the humidity as well. All that’s combined to make it feel pretty lousy outside.”

Thankfully, relief is on the way – for now.

“We have a cold front coming through Wednesday night,” says Anderson. “Thursday and Friday, it will be much cooler and much more comfortable weather coming in across the area.” Temperatures are expected to hover around 20 C. “It will feel more like it should feel for the end of August and early September.”

But that cool spell isn’t going to last long.

“Even though its going to cool down Thursday and Friday, Sunday through Wednesday next week will be hot and humid once again,” says Anderson. “Probably not quite as hot as its been but fairly uncomfortable across the region.”

Are you embracing the hot summer weather or are you sick of it? Tell us in the comments below.