School is back, but summer remains.
Abbotsford got its hottest day of the year on Sunday, as 31.1 C also set a new mark as the hottest Sept. 11 on record in the city.
And Abby was set to hit another hot-weather record on Monday – most consecutive days with the temperature above 25 C in the month of September. The record is 10 days, set in 1974. Abbotsford was set to match that mark on Monday, as the mercury was forecast to get up to 26 C, and the morning began with the bright sunshine that has typified this balmy September.
“A 10-day stretch of weather like that is unusual,” said David Jones, an Environment Canada meteorologist, noting that the hottest day of the year almost always occurs in July or August.
He said daily weather records are being set all over the South Coast region this month, and Abbotsford temperatures have flirted with new records on a daily basis.
Saturday was 29.7 C and Friday 29.2 C, before the mercury set Sunday’s new mark.
“We finally got a big, summertime ridge that was stagnant over us,” he said, noting offshore cool air has been blocked from moving inland, “and we just baked.”
The record for the hottest recorded September day in Abbotsford, 37.5 C set on Sept. 3, 1988, is in no immediate danger.
A cooling forecast predicted temperatures would drop to 22 C on Tuesday and Wednesday, with clouds and showers forecast for later in the week and through the weekend.
