If you feel like the month of June owes you something for the drearier-than-normal weather, you’re not alone.
June 2012 – the month lately referred to as Junuary – was cold, damp and dark, Environment Canada meteorologist David Jones says.
This time it wasn’t just perception, as it was last year.
Last month was 1.1 C lower than the mean temperature of 15.2 C for a typical June, it rained 20 millimetres beyond the normal 45mm, we saw 19 days of rain instead of the normal 12, and we had a week less sunshine than we’d enjoy in an average June.
“To have the temperature a degree lower than the average is significant,” said Jones. “It’s beyond the standard deviation. It was certainly cooler than normal.”
Only eight days reached the 20 C mark, instead of the usual 14, and at no time during the month did we reach 25 C – the closest we came was 24.6 C on June 21.
“It’s been worse in June and July long weekend didn’t help,” said Jones. “But June tends to be bipolar – either sunny and dry or wet and grim like we just saw.”
For campers at Living Forest Oceanside Campground in Nanaimo, they just deal with whatever weather comes at them, said owner Scott Littlejohn.
“We don’t get a lot of tenters until the kids get out of school, so it’s not too bad that way,” he said. “And for people in RVs, the rain doesn’t affect them too much. We always make sure we have plenty of indoor suggestions for them, like the museum. But our numbers are right about where they were last year which is good, and the upside is everything at the campground is green.”
The east coast of Vancouver Island is rated ‘very low’ for fire hazard according to the B.C. Wildfire Management Branch as of Tuesday. That rating is expected to increase to higher risk as hot temperatures and sunny skies settle over the region beginning today (July 5).
Summer will arrive soon as temperatures are forecast to reach 30 C this weekend, leaving people with something entirely different to complain about.
reporter2@nanaimobulletin.com
