There is some relief coming to the hot, dry weather but for those continuing conditions are still gripping the region for the next couple of days. The heat warning is still in effect and the plight of the farmers growing desperate.  The drought warning deepened again for one more region, the Mississippi watershed west of Ottawa has upgraded the situation from moderate to severe. It is hard to remember the last time we had a good rainfall, it's been that long.

The weird thing is this isn't even close to the hottest or driest we've seen in the Ottawa area; it just feels that way.

Donna Richards figured she was in for a long, hot day in her high-rise apartment, owned by Ottawa Community Housing. There was a day-long scheduled power outage to do some maintenance work. 

“It is unbearable in here,” says Richards, sweat forming on her brow, “even if you have the fans going it's some relief but with no power, we have nothing.”

But a welcome surprise: just 3 hours in to that unbearable heat and the lights and the fan went back on, four hours ahead of schedule.

No relief in sight though for Pam Molot, a letter carrier with Canada Post.  What's that motto?  Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat. 

“I’m finding it very warm, very warm,” says Molot, “as soon as you walk outside, it's like a wall hits you and there's no relief whatsoever.”

In fact, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell, we have had 27 days of plus 30 degree weather so far from May to mid-August.  The record, though, was in 1955 with 40 days.  In terms of rain, we are way down.

“We are 50% of normal,” says Kimbell, “we've had 149 mm of rain in Ottawa since beginning of May, and normally we would have had about 300 mm.”  

It's not just humans and animals being affected by this hot dry weather.  It’s plants as well that can be under severe stress.  You can see the effect of the drought on many of the trees in our region with shriveled browning leaves. Landscape companies say a long, deep weekly watering is essential, especially for newer plantings.

“Let the hose run lightly for an hour or two around the root of trees about once a week,” says Edeltraut Schmitz, with Artistic Landscape Design, “And it's never too late, even if a plant is half gone, you sometimes can revive it.”

Now we did tell Canada Post's Pam Molot about a splash pad nearby where she was working. While she clearly couldn't pop in, a bunch of neighbourhood kids sure did.

“I like running in the water,” says 6 year old Inara.

“It’s so fun,” says a dripping wet Maryam.  Watching from the sidelines, all the mothers standing in the heat.
“That’s it, I’m totally going to go in,” says Melissa Ferland, infant in tow, as the other mothers race behind her.