Despite the early snow this week it appears that–at least for now Ottawa is snow-free. More photos of fall in Ontario below the weather forecast.
Short and Long Range Weather Forecast for the Haliburton Highlands and Maple Lake:
Trick or Treaters best dress warmly as Friday’s seasonal temperatures will plunge well-below freezing as evening passes. Saturday will have lots of sun with below-normal temperatures with a high of 37F. Looking forward through Sunday expect some warming, cloudy periods and a high of 41F. The extended forecast can be viewed by clicking below.
The extended forecast shows quite a variety of weather–very much above normal for most of next week but the temperatures take a nosedive on Saturday with a cloudy day and below-normal temperatures on Sunday. Please have a look at the 14-day forecast in the graphic above for more details.
Fall Colours in the Ottawa Region: The colours have advanced quickly over the last week or so in the Ottawa area and are now just past peak with about 20% leaf fall. The region still offers some nice pockets of bright orange, red and yellow along the beautiful Rideau Canal as well as the Ottawa parkland areas.
Ottawa National War Memorial-Halloween '08
(click to enlarge all photos)
Parliament Hill- Halloween '08
National Gallery of Canada- Halloween '08
And a few shots from Cottage Country on Halloween Day ’08:
I was scanning some live webcam photos of Canada today and when I got to more familiar territory saw this:
Above is Ottawa
Yikes! they’ve gotten snow already–and after all that summer rain. Then I thought cool! Look at the hammock. Great picture!
I see from checking further that parts of Ontario and Quebec On the night of the 28th got hit with this :
The storm blew north from the east coast of the U.S., which saw anywhere from five to 30 centimetres of snow Tuesday, causing power outages and road and school closures throughout New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Eastern Ontario’s first snowfall came early this year. Last year’s first major storm hit the area on November 16.
The 2007/2008 winter season was one of the snowiest in recent memory for the region, as snowfall levels approached the 1970-71 record of 441.1 centimetres.
Bu things are improving slowly as of Thursday morning.
The storm left behind as much as 15 centimetres of snow and thousands of homes and businesses were without power.
Wet, heavy snow downed tree branches and power lines, knocking out power for about 22,000 Hydro One customers in eastern Ontario and more than 70,000 customers in Quebec.
In Ontario, the majority of power outages hit east of highway 4-16 to the Quebec border and included Winchester, Arnprior, Brockville and Vankleek Hill.
Yikes, what a mess!
“Hydro” is electricity but I’ll bet you know that since there’s a 70 percent chance you are Canadian.
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If you are planning on spending some time in the Haliburton Highlands this weekend, be sure to plan some indoor activities as the weekend calls for rain on both Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th. As we move into the work week, Monday brings plummeting tempertures and as the day progresses snow in some areas. Temperatures remain well below normal with a slight reprieve moving into mid-week. Wednesday’s weather should be mostly cloudy with temps. stabilizing to about 5C through Thursday when they climb a bit, though still remain below normal throughout the first weekend of November. There is no rain in the forecast for November 1-2 so make sure you wear layers and get outside if you can to enjoy late autumn in Cottage Country.
EDIT/Courtesy of the Weather Network:
The colours are well past peak with considerable leaf fall in the Parry Sound, Muskoka and Haliburton regions. There are still areas of dull red, orange and yellow remaining. The Bala Cranberry Festival and the Hike Haliburton Festival are two excellent events where you can enjoy the remaining colours this weekend. In the Kawartha Lakes region the colours are well past peak with 40% leaf fall. There are still some nice pockets of red, rust, yellow and deep orange. The Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls area and onto the Kinmount region always offer some nice fall colour touring. Highways 35 and 121 are excellent fall colour routes.
I hope you enjoy the webcam stills. They were all taken last night within minutes of one another as the sun was setting.
The weather appears to have settled into a normal pattern with Saturday, October 18 looking particularly bright and sunny, if a bit below normal temperatures. The two-week extended forecast is showing rain 50% of the time, though by midweek next week temperatures rise substantially above normal.
Regardless of what you have planned, have a great time in the Haliburton Highlands!
Fall Colours FYI: The Muskoka area and across to the Haliburton region are at peak fall colours with bright pockets of burgundy, red and orange. Ideal viewing locations are the fire tower lookout in Dorset and Lion’s Lookout in Huntsville. Highways 35, 117 and 118 always offer outstanding fall colour.
I love to travel whenever and wherever finances permit. I guess that’s no surprise–given that I’ve dedicated this blog to a place that affords me the opportunity to see many interesting things as I make my way to and fro’ several times a summer–not to mention the unforgettable sights I see once there.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate that just about everyone has an interesting story to tell and their stories are often coloured by their place of residence or the various places they’ve been.
For example my friend “E,” who now lives near my parents about 700 miles from here and with whom I’d very much like to spend some time, spent most of her life in Australia, her native land. I have always wanted to travel to Australia and will someday but until then, hearing first-hand tales from an Australia native is as close to being there as I can be. I would love to share some of her amusing tales of growing up Aussie but she has a particular fantastically humourous way of relating her life story. I have to have her varbatim contribution. She is that funny. It would be neat to (with her permission) switch on a little recorder and later use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to transcribe a post of E. sharing her story. If you are unfamiliar with what I call “the Dragon,” make sure to have a look atDragon Reviewsand get a good feel for it by takingDragon’s typing speed test!
Back to my Aussie friend. What has made her life even more fascinating to me is that now she lives in an area of the country that is trying to make changes intrinsically to morph itself from slums into middle class neighbourhoods. She has a condo with her spouse and because she lives in this uncharted territory she constantly witnesses interactions that must boggle her mind though she puts an amusing spin on them when writing of them. I can’t even begin to get a grip on what it must be like to be an Aussie ex-pat transferred to the seedy side of a big American city, witnessing drug transactions from your back porch, gunshots as a semi-common background noise, drunks staggering past, between you and your little path to your front door–moments after they’ve taken a wee on your front gate. :p
The Dragon could take me a long way in committing to the written word so much of what is conveyed but ends up either lost in translation or forgotten due to my imperfect photographic memory. That’s kind of how I envision Dragon NaturallySpeaking–as my photographic memory-travel blogging assistant.
You may have come across me mentioning the many places that I wanted to visit while staying at Maple Lake in summer, 2008. Because Maple Lake is in the heart of the Haliburton Highlands but only a few hours from two of Canada’s most important cities, Toronto and Ottawa (Canada’s capital), it affords great opportunity for day trips. Despite my best intentions, this summer past it rained so much that outdoor activities had a very small window for one to take advantage of.
The Haliburton Forest was high on my “to visit” list because I love public art and nature and can’t think of a more clever nor inviting way to enjoy it than to combine it.
Because I’m lucky enough and because now we’ve got year-round access to Internet so I can work when I need to, I’ll be at Maple Lake next summer and I cannot imagine that next year will outdo this year’s 70-year record rainfall so I’m feeling quite certain that I will get my visit to the Haliburton Forest and enjoy every minute of it.
To add to my anticipation I’ve just now heard that there will be a dedication of a new sculpture on
October 25th, at 2.00 pm. The artist, Bill Lishman, is a world-renown artist who has worked on a diverse spectrum of projects in varied media.
Here’s a little bit about him:
“His works over the past three decades include two award winning films and numerous works of public art, which include an 86-foot high central theme Sculpture for Expo ’86 in Vancouver and a 2700 square foot 21st century earth integrated dome home. He and seven pieces of his sculpture star in the acclaimed 3D IMAX film the “Last Buffalo.”
Bill was one of the pioneers of ultralight flight in Canada and in 1988 became the first human to lead birds in formation. In 1993 he led the first experimental migration of geese from Ontario to Virginia, which was documented by ABC’s 20/20. ”
Things to know before you go:
The Haliburton Sculpture Forest, in Glebe Park near the village of Haliburton in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario, Canada, is a unique outdoor collection of sculptures by Canadian and international artists. The trails in the Sculpture Forest-for walking and bike riding in spring, summer and fall and skiing in the winter-provide changing perspectives of the forest and the sculptures in each of the seasons. There is no charge for admission in spring, summer or fall but donations are accepted. A Sculpture Forest map and more information about the sculptures, the artists, and new additions to the Sculpture Forest is available at www.haliburtonsculptureforest.ca.
It’s fallen to below freezing a number of times now at Maple Lake and I’m sure many other areas in Ontario. Still, my spouse who did a fair amount of outside work whilst at the cottage this summer past, checks every day to see how low the temps will go each night. As I write this it’s a pleasant 64F at the Lake but even in summer temps drop, sometimes severely at night. Now that we are well into fall there can only be more extreme changes.
I got lucky and found the right combination of webcam shots today to be able to share a bit of fall foliage. It seems that the seasonal colour change is near the end of it’s cycle as well. Enjoy!
Here’s the revised weather for October 8-21, 2008 in the West Guilford, Maple Lake and Haliburton County area. (above)
I’m happy to report that my previous dire-sounding extended weather report seems to have taken a turn for the better with seasonally extreme low temperatures now turning upward, pushing more toward average.
Considering that we are barely a week into the month of October that is good news as the cool but moderate weather is enjoyed by many people. In comparison there are folks that cannot wait for the frigid temperatures and lots of snow–the better they can ski, snowboard, and go dog-sledding in Haliburton and the rest of cottage country.
Just a quick heads up. Until I can get some better webcam shots out of Ontario I’m going to hop around a bit in order to better get a feel for what other Canadian provinces look like this time of year. Today I “went” to Vancouver where thanks to “Dave,” there are more beautiful web cam shots than one knows what to do with.
Depending on where you were in Ontario today you were experiencing very different weather as these webcam shots–all taken within one hour of another–show.
The long-range weather forecast for the Haliburton Highlands-West Guilford in the coming 2 weeks seems to indicate much of the same diversity. From temperatures a bit above normal in the immediate days to come to temperatures plunging severely next week, it’s a mixed bag–typical of this “bridge” time between when fall turns into late fall, which depending on your definition can include winter-like conditions in respect to temperatures. Please look to the bottom of the post for the 14-day weather forecast for West Guilford-Haliburton Highlands.
