Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most urgent environmental challenges of our time. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its latest Fifth Assessment Report (2015) says that, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.” It further reports Global Warming of 1.5 ºC (2018) and the IPCC emphasizes that “impacts on natural and human systems from global warming have already been observed. Many land and ocean ecosystems and some of the services they provide have already changed due to global warming.”

Local changes

While climate change is a global issue, we are also seeing changes locally. The climate in our watershed is becoming warmer. Winters are getting milder and the coldest days are not as cold as they used to be. The amount of snow is decreasing and we are seeing more rain in the winter months.

In summer months, the hottest days are hotter and heat waves last longer. As warmer air can hold more moisture, summer rains become less frequent but more intense.

These changes are already impacting our water resources. We see high water levels in local rivers and creeks more often and higher than historical levels, the spring freshet comes earlier and summer and fall low flows are lower and last longer. These effects are expected to worsen as we move into the future.

In response to this challenge Kawartha Conservation has developed two key documents: a background paper Climate Change - A Challenge and Opportunity and Climate Change Strategy.

The background paper presents a framework for the Kawartha Conservation Climate Change Strategy and is based on local data and extensive literature research. The Climate Change Strategy outlines the strategies and actions that Kawartha Conservation is using in order to deal with challenges that arise in a changing climate.

Snow Data: 1987 - 2021

To visualize snow depth by area and year across the Kawartha watershed, staff have developed an interactive Snow Data site to view the following information:

• Snow Depth by Date
• Snow Depth - All Available Data
• Average Snow Depth by Year
• Maximum Snow Depth by Year, and
• Monitoring Locations

Visitors can view trends over time for each monitored location including:

• Indian Point Provincial Park
• Ken Reid Conservation Area
• Pigeon River Conservation Area
• Woodville

View Snow Data from across our watershed here: https://www.kawarthaconservation.com/SnowData/

2021 Precipitation Data

To visualize 2021 monthly precipitation data across the Kawartha watershed, staff have developed an interactive precipitation site to view information from three locations:

• Indian Point Weather Station
• Ken Reid Weather Station
• Port Perry Weather Station

2021 Precipitation Data Summary

• Precipitation varied significantly in 2021. On the one hand, we experienced "wet" months that were close or above the historically highest monthly amounts. On the other, very "dry" months with low precipitation were observed. However, the total precipitation recorded over the course of the year in 2021 was about the average for long-term amounts across all monitoring gauges.

• July and September were the wettest months of the year for the Kawartha Conservation watershed. Amount of rain observed in the central and northern portions of the watershed (areas north of Little Britain) in September was two times more of the long-term average for that month, while the southern part of the watershed received at least 130% of the long-term monthly normal amount of rain.

• The wettest day of the year was September 23rd, with precipitation gauges across the watershed registering 44-84 mm of rain. Those daily amounts are at least 50% more than the long-term average for the whole month of September at the respective monitoring locations.

• On the contrary, January, May, and August demonstrated a significant deficit of precipitation. During those months, average precipitation amounts recorded by the monitoring stations across the watershed were 47%, 26%, and 55% of the long-term average values, respectively. In fact, only 10.6 mm of rain fell in Emily Provincial Park during the entire month of May.

View 2021 Monthly Precipitation Data

View 2020 Monthly Precipitation Data

Climate change documents and resources