By Dr. Adam Fenech and Dr. Xander Wang
It was a good news story on Prince Edward Island when it came to the weather over the past year. Here are our Top 3 PEI Weather Stories for 2021.
Number 3 – Record Heat in June
There were maximum temperature records set for June 8 in Charlottetown (30.6 degrees Celsius (°C) breaking the previous record of 27.8°C in 1922), Summerside (32.7°C breaking the previous record of 27.2°C in 1973) and St. Peters Bay (29.9°C breaking the previous record of 28.3°C set in 2017). These are the highest recorded maximum temperatures on this day in recorded history going back almost 150 years. What is striking is that these records are not simply breaking the old ones by minor amounts but often by 1, 2 or even 5 degrees warmer!
Number 2 – Little to No Sea Ice
There was very little ice formation around Prince Edward Island in 2021 what with higher normal average winter temperatures and fewer than normal major storms. There has been a trend toward less ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence over the last 30 years, but it was particularly striking in 2021. Even the first ever Ice Walk, a silent vigil across the bridge linking the Lennox Island community to the northwest shore of Prince Edward Island to remember the dangerous journey across the ice the Mi’kmaq had to take until the bridge was built in 1973, took place on the causeway because the ice wasn’t formed and solid enough.
Number 1 – A Bountiful Harvest Season
After two previous bad harvest years, what with the hot and dry summer of 2020, and post-tropical storm Dorian in 2019, the weather of 2021 provided much better growing conditions for Prince Edward Island crops.
“A huge crop of corn” is how Matt Barrett of Oceanbrae Farms in Belmont, Lot 16, described it. At Colin MacNevin’s family farm in DeSable, the corn was described as one of the strongest crops in years: “one of the best crops I’ve ever grown.”
Robert Godfrey, former executive director of the PEI Federation of Agriculture called the favourable weather in the spring and early summer led to “the best hay crop farmers have seen in the last four or five years, both in terms of quality, in terms of yield.”
Strawberry farmers had ideal growing conditions of a warm spring with little frost and timely rain that brought on an early harvest referred to as “the best crop of berries we’ve seen in years.”
And after a couple of difficult seasons, the 2021 PEI potato crop was called “one of the best in decades.” Kevin MacIsaac, general manager of the United Potato Growers of Canada, said: “This year’s potato crop in Prince Edward Island is one of the best that growers have grown for many generations. A beautiful crop this year.” Now if we can only get them to market!
I have often said that there will be winners and losers under climate change. In the short term, Prince Edward Island stands to benefit from the warmer and drier conditions that climate change brings. And this past year of 2021 revealed just how these type of climate conditions might influence Prince Edward Island’s ecology and economy. It is a future of record high temperatures, less ice formation, and bountiful agricultural crops.