Last month was the hottest and driest September on record for numerous parts of B.C., and October could prove to be much of the same.
Thirty-three heat records have already been set in just two days, and Environment Canada meteorologist Alyssa Charbonneau said similar conditions will remain through the Thanksgiving long weekend.
“We don’t see much of a change going forward, at least through the rest of this week and into next week. There’s some hints that going into the middle of next week things might cool off slightly.”
Charbonneau said they simply aren’t seeing the weather patterns they normally would during fall yet. She hesitated to attribute the unseasonable weather to climate change, noting it’s extremely difficult to tie a single season or weather event to a larger phenomenon, but noted that experts have repeatedly pointed to warm, dry conditions and abnormal weather as signs of the planet heating.
Summer weather hit B.C. later than usual after an extended cool and wet spring. Since August, though, temperatures have generally been higher than normal, according to Environment Canada.
In September, several parts of the province broke monthly records for heat and lack of precipitation.
The weather station at the Victoria International Airport, for instance, recorded the warmest September since 1941. Normally, the mean temperature there is 15.3 C, but this year it was 17.9 C. It also had the second driest September since 1941, with just one milometer of rain recorded, compared to an average of 31.1 mm.
Abbotsford managed to beat both records, dating back to 1945. It saw a mean temperature of 17.9 C, compared to a normal September of 15.3 C, and just 0.9 mm of rain, compared to an average of 75.5 mm.
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Over the first weekend of October, 33 single-day heat records were set, including:
Oct. 1:
- Cache Creek: New record of 26.6 C, old record of 26.3 C set in 2012
- Clearwater: New record of 24.8 C, old record of 23.9 C set in 1923
- Comox: New record of 23 C, old record of 22.9 C set in 1992
- Courtenay: New record of 23 C, old record of 22.9 C set in 1992
- Hope: New record of 28.8 C, old record of 27.7 C set in 1987
- Lytton: New record of 27.3 C, old record of 26.9 C set in 2003
- Merritt: New record of 27.9 C, old record of 27.8 C set in 1975
- Port Alberni: New record of 28 C, old record of 26.5 C set in 1987
- Revelstoke: New record of 23.1 C, old record of 22.8 C set in 2003
Oct. 2:
- Abbotsford: New record of 27.5 C, old record of 27.0 C set in 1993
- Agassiz: New record of 27.4 C, old record of 27.2 C set in 1935
- Ashcroft: New record of 28.6 C, old record of 27.0 C set in 1987
- Clearwater: New record of 26.1 C, old record of 25.0 C set in 1923
- Clinton Area: New record of 25.0 C, old record of 23.3 C set in 2020
- Comox: New record of 22.7 C, old record of 22.2 C set in 1952
- Courtenay: New record of 22.7 C, old record of 22.2 C set in 1952
- Esquimalt: New record of 25.3 C, old record of 25.0 C set in 1935
- Gibsons: New record of 23.7 C, old record of 22.2 C set in 1962
- Gonzales Point: New record of 25.3 C, old record of 25.0 C set in 1935
- Kelowna: New record of 25.9 C, old record of 25.6 C set in 1932
- Lytton: New record of 28.1 C, old record of 27.8 C set in 1963
- Malahat: New record of 24.8 C, old record of 22.0 C set in 1987
- Nakusp: New record of 21.4 C, old record of 20.9 C set in 2003
- Pitt Meadows: New record of 27.5 C, old record of 26.4 C set in 1993
- Port Alberni: New record of 29.3 C, old record of 27.0 C set in 1993
- Sechelt: New record of 23.7 C, old record of 22.2 C set in 2020
- Squamish: New record of 27.0 C, old record of 26.0 C set in 1988
- Tatlayoko Lake: New record of 26.6 C, old record of 26.0 C set in 1993
- Vernon: New record of 25.3 C, old record of 24.4 C set in 1904
- Victoria: New record of 23.5 C, old record of 22.5 C set in 1993
- Victoria (Harbour): New record of 25.3 C, old record of 25.0 C set in 1935
- Victoria (Hartland): New record of 25.3 C, old record of 25.0 C set in 1935
- Victoria (University): New record of 25.3 C, old record of 25.0 C set in 1935
@janeskrypnek
jane.skrypnek@blackpress.ca
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