Century mark by Thursday

Storm damage in downtown Ottawa Sunday night. (CBC.ca)

There is lots of weather to talk about on this Tuesday morning. Lets start with yesterday as more strong storms rolled across the region. Again most of the storms missed my location but passed well west and east of Montreal, however one cell did cross the city late in the afternoon with heavy rain. Some storms were quite strong in Ontario and New York bringing down more trees and power lines adding to the damage in Ontario and west Quebec from Sunday's storm. The storm on Sunday night knocked out power to over 100,000 homes and claimed two lives in Quebec as well as several injuries in Ottawa.

High heat and humidity is gripping the prairies and US Midwest and will spread back into Ontario and Quebec for the balance of the week. Temperatures yesterday were in the mid 30's with humidex values in the 40's. Numerous severe thunderstorms flared up across Alberta and Saskatchewan with several reports of softball size hail and even a couple of tornadoes. The mercury will begin to soar in our region with highs on Wednesday around 32C and rising to 34C by Thursday. In Toronto and southwest Ontario temperatures will exceed 38C (102F) with humidex values off the charts in the 40's. Advisories for high heat will likely be posted today for the entire region. To add to the already poor air quality, some smoke from the northern Ontario forest fires is beginning to drift south into eastern Ontario and Quebec. At this time no relief is in sight for the heat with it lasting well into the late weekend and possibly next week.

TROPICAL STORM BRET: continues to move slowly northeast into the Atlantic Ocean and away from land. The second system of the year is 410 miles south of Cape Hatteras with 50mph winds.

More dust is blowing around Arizona as the hot summer of 2011 moves on. Another dust storm was observed yesterday near Phoenix. Temperatures are hot in the most of the US with 100F plus temperatures in Dallas and Oklahoma City recorded everyday this moth except one.