After a spring that felt more like winter, a top Environment Canada scientist says the Greater Toronto Area should be prepared for a summer of "unsettled" weather.

"I've looked at the models and it's not as if the weather is going to turn around. It's not as if nature feels sorry for us," says Dave Phillips, a senior climatologist with the national weather agency.

"There is a thing in weather called persistence — what you see is what you're going to get."

Phillips spoke to CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Friday, the first day of summer.

He told guest host Reshmi Nair that he can only recall one other year in his long career when the region hadn't seen a string of summer-like temperatures before June 21. Last year, the GTA saw seven days above 30 C in advance of the summer solstice.

The warmest day of 2019 so far came in May, when the mercury climbed to about 26.5 C.

"We've been through kind of a tough ride. We had no fall last year. Spring has been more winter-like than summer-like. I wouldn't say there is weather rage breaking out, but people feel they are owed some good, comfortable sort of summer weather," says Phillips.

Fewer 30 C days

While the "dog days" of July and August still lay ahead, we'll likely see fewer stretches of hot temperatures this summer than we've become accustomed to, he adds.

By the end of summer last year, the GTA had experienced 30 days above the 30 C mark. This year, according to Phillips, "we might get 10."

"My sense is that it's going to be a little bit unsettled and not a lot of days in a row of consistent kind of weather," he says.

The bright side is that air quality will be better when compared to last year, and hydro bills for most people will be a bit more reasonable.

Farmers, however, have been left "very concerned" as a wet and cold spring has put crop schedules way behind.

"It's just been too wet for too long. As soon as it dries out, it just starts raining again," Phillips says.