Did you ever think you’d see a heat warning cancel a major event in the city of St. John’s? I can’t say I’d have it on my what-to-expect-when-expecting-2022 bingo card, but here we are, living in both the pandemic and global warming era.

Don’t believe in global warming? The 2022 Tely 10 and Pride Parade, respectively, were both postponed due to dangerous conditions due to heat, in July, the year of our lord 2022. Not a hurricane, not a snowstorm. HEAT. Not the Michael Mann heist flick. The stick your shirt to your gut, wilt the flowers, cook eggs on the engine kind. 

But then, it’s been that kind of year in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Expect the unexpected should be our motto. So assuredly when the government of the day rolled out plans for #ComeHomeYear22, even the least cynical Newfoundlanders couldn’t be faulted for long-range-predicting grey skies, boat loads of rain and fog and unseasonal temps. It’s what we’re known for, after all. 

But fast-forward to the dead-heat of summer (quite literally), and it’s been one for the books. 

Clear skies, largely gorgeous weather (minus the mawzy, get in the basement out of it kind I’ve been ranting about), and the perfect backdrop for the come home and the get down of Newfoundlanders and would-be Newfoundlanders past and present. 

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a certified weather grump, the most jaded of the jaded and impossible to please kind. The sort of feller Townie Memes and the Newfoundland Turnip mock on the regular. Too cold in the winter, too wet in the spring, too hot in the summer, too undecided to be good or bad in the fall.

And I’m not sure I’m alone. That could be a born into ya Newfoundland trait of uncontentment (is this a word?), but I will admit (heat warnings and cancelled road races aside), I’ve been chuffed with #ComeHome2022onTheRock. 

Put a beer in my hand and flip flops on my feet with 22 degrees (and not a degree more!), and I’m as content in my east end backyard as I would be in Barbados or Bangkok during the summertime.  

Now, I wonder what the gods of tourism have in store for fall and winter? Because, like many of us, I’m more than ready to expect the worst and be tickled pink for the best.

Dillon Collins, The Herald’s Staff Writer, can be reached by emailing [email protected]