From a weather standpoint, the month of May was certainly an anomaly on the North Coast.
Environment Canada measured just 3.3. millimetres of rain over the 31 days of May, a sharp contrast to the 20-year average of 153.9 millimetres that fell in May between 1981 and 2010 and the 87.5 millimetres that fell last May. The figure shattered the previous record for lowest rainfall in the month, which saw 29 millimetres of rain fall back in May of 1949, and meteorologists say the cause of the low precipitation tally is no mystery.
“We had a long ridge of high pressure parked over the eastern Pacific Ocean that pushed the jet-stream north. With that, much of the precipitation was pushed to the north as well,” explained Environment Canada meteorologist Andre Besson, noting Prince Rupert was not alone in seeing unusual weather last month.
“That is not a lot of precipitation, but that was the case across most of B.C. We saw a number of records broken in the province related to temperature and precipitation.”
Besson said that residents of the region can expect somewhat similar weather as the calendar turns to June, though whether or not the dry spell will stay intact remains to be seen.
“Typically June is nice on the North Coast and I would expect temperatures to remain higher than normal for the month,” he said.
“However, it is hard to tell what will happen with the precipitation because in the summer it tends to be driven more by local events than by a widespread system.”
