November weather in the Chemainus Valley was notable for containing the month’s highest-ever temperature, no snowfall and significantly more rainfall all rolled into a 30-day period.
The maximum temperature on Nov. 4 hit a downright toasty 19 degrees Celsius.
“This set a new record for any day in November and almost reached the psychological barrier of 20 Celsius, a benchmark more commonly identified with summer than our customary transition into winter,” noted Chris Carss, a volunteer weather observer for Environment Canada at his Chemainus home.
There have also been a few frosty nights, but those can occur almost anytime during the fall season in a normal year, Carss pointed out.
“More notably, there was no late November snowfall in low-lying areas this year, although some snow has been visible near the top of Mount Brenton. Normally we can expect snowfalls averaging nearly eight centimetres during the last few days of the month, although we only occasionally see that much remaining on the ground without quickly melting.”
And then there’s the rain, nearly 90 millimetres above normal for the month, but with the customary combined precipitation amount closer to 80 mm above normal because of the absent snowfall.
“Despite these anomalies that are usually associated with above normal temperatures, November’s overall average maximum and minimum temperatures were almost right bang-on normal, as were the stats for mostly sunny and mostly cloudy days,” Carss indicated. “We had just enough below normal temperature days to cancel out the 19-degree peak temperature, but it never got cold enough for long enough to cause any of the wet weather to manifest as snow.”
The mean maximum temperature of 9.2 C and minimum of 4.3 C were both 0.1 C above the respective normals of 9.1 C and 4.2 C.
At the other end of that extreme maximum of 19 C on Nov. 4 was the extreme minimum of 1 C just a few days later on Nov. 9 and 10.
Days of mostly or partly sunny conditions matched the normal of seven. Nineteen of the 23 mostly cloudy days had precipitation that matched the normal.
Total rainfall amounted to 295.5 mm, way above the normal of 209.4. The normal for snowfall in November is 7.8 cm.
On Thetis Island, Keith Rush recorded 209.9 mm of rain at his Foster Point Road residence. Last November’s total there was just 56.9 mm. The average November on Thetis yields 169.8 mm.
The year to date total of 1,086.8 mm of rain is running way above the 657.8 mm recorded to this point last year.
December has started off quite sunny, but Carss expected the wet weather to return to the extent it will probably become wetter than normal to match November.
“Temperatures are expected to remain near normal, but of course that means about a three-degree drop from November,” he added. “That also means a fairly high probability of some snow mixed in with the rain, especially towards the end of the month. Is anyone dreaming of a white COVID Christmas?”
