Last month was drier and warmer than usual in West Kootenay, according to a monthly roundup of statistics from the Southeast Fire Centre.
We were on pace to receive less than 15 per cent of the normal rainfall until the last week of the month when a series of Pacific systems dropped 33.5 mm on our area, bringing the monthly total to 76 per cent of normal.
The warmest and windiest conditions (21.9 degrees and wind gusts to 52 km/h) were on the 10th, “within a strengthening warm southerly flow ahead of an approaching Pacific frontal system that produced only 0.3 mm of rain locally, forecasters Jesse Ellis and Ron Lakeman wrote.
The record temperature for October is 27.2 degrees, set on Oct. 7, 1980.
Mainly clear skies and a dry airmass allowed temperatures to dip to their lowest point of the month (minus-2.5 degrees) early on the 23rd. The record low for the month is minus-11.3, established on Halloween 2002.
The mean monthly temperature of 10.5 was 2.5 degrees warmer than average, and broke the previous record of 10.4 degrees set last year.
