Southern Manitoba has just come through one of the hottest summers on record.

David Phillips with Environment Canada says the summer of 1988 was hotter, and so the summer of 2018 will go down as the second or third hottest, rivalling the summer of 1977. Environment Canada records go back 70 years.

Phillips says May was quite the contrast from April this year. The month of April for southern Manitoba was one of the coldest on record. But the switch flipped in May. May, 2018 will be recorded as one of the hottest on record and Phillips says that was a sign of things to come.

"May, June, July and August, wow, every month was warmer than normal," says Phillips. "Overall, I think it came out to be about one and a half degrees warmer than normal."

If you want to use 30 degrees as a benchmark for heat, Phillips says this summer we had 22 days when the thermometer eclipsed 30 degrees. In a normal summer, southern Manitoba has 10 of those days. And Phillips says there were several days where the temperature peaked at 32, 33 and even 36 degrees.

As for precipitation, Phillips says it may have been dry but it wasn't as bad a situation as in Saskatchewan.

"I think when it's that warm you really need more precipitation," says Phillips. "So it was maybe more of a deficit situation than what the statistics tell."

Phillips says the summer of 2018 will also be characterized by some severe weather, including a deadly tornado that touched down in Alonsa August 3rd, killing a 77-year-old man. Phillips says that was the first death from a tornado in seven years in Canada.

Meanwhile, Environment Canada has now issued its fall weather outlook for the months of September, October and November. Phillips says there is still a lot of heat left in the lakes, rivers and land which can slow down the cooling process. He notes their models are showing a warmer than normal fall for southern Manitoba.

And, just because we experienced a hot summer, Phillips says that doesn't mean we will pay for it with a cold winter. Though the Farmer's Almanac is calling for a bitterly cold winter, Phillips says there is an El Nino growing in the Pacific and depending on its strength could actually result in a winter that is milder than normal.