Quebec's July weather forecast is out and it looks like summer is still playing hard to get

June hasn't exactly been a triumph for anyone in Quebec who was counting on nice weather.

And if you were holding out hope that July would finally deliver the summer the region has been waiting for, the Old Farmer's Almanac might give you another idea.

The Almanac has dropped its long-range outlook for southern Quebec, and July is shaping up to be a month of two halves, with a few genuinely nice windows surrounded by a fair bit of rain and instability. As always, the Almanac builds its outlooks using historical weather patterns, solar activity and long-term climate trends. It won't tell you whether to bring an umbrella on July 18th, but it gives a reasonable read on what the season is likely to feel like.

Here's what it's calling for in southern Quebec this July:

• July 1 to 3: Cool and breezy to start, with clouds lingering over southern Quebec.
• July 4 to 7: Showers and fog move in, with humid conditions settling across the region.
• July 8 to 11: The first real bright spot of the month. Mild and partly sunny, with scattered showers inland but generally pleasant conditions.
• July 12 to 15: Warm but unstable, with thunderstorms likely in southern Quebec.
• July 16 to 19: Cooler air returns, with gusty winds.
• July 20 to 23: Widespread rain, with the heaviest amounts expected in western Quebec.
• July 24 to 27: Pleasant and warm — the best stretch of the month by a fair margin.
• July 28 to 31: A stormy close, with thunder and heavy rain moving back in.

The two windows worth circling are July 8 to 11 and July 24 to 27. Everything else is a mix of clouds, showers and the occasional thunderstorm.

Earlier this spring, the Almanac was pointing to July and August as the payoff months, forecasting record heat and back-to-back stretches of intense warmth for the region.

Whether August delivers on those earlier promises remains to be seen, but July is looking like a mixed bag.