Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
You weren't imagining it — last month was an unusually hot and dry July in the Yukon. "Well, it was warmer in June, but boy did [temperatures] ever take off in July," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. "We saw temperatures in the Yukon that were two to three-and-a-half degrees warmer than normal."
After two weeks without significant rainfall and a lack of precipitation in the forecast, May 2021 could be one of the driest months on record in the Ottawa area. David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said 13 millimetres of precipitation rain has fallen in the Ottawa Valley region this month. That's 11 millimetres fewer than the 24 that fell in 1944 — the lowest recorded amount in the last 75 years.
