It may have seemed like more rainfall in July in the Chemainus Valley compared to recent years, but the total came out just slightly below normal for the month.
Total rainfall for July of 25.9 millimetres slipped just under the normal of 27.5 mm.
There were 16 days of mostly or partly sunny conditions, but that was below the normal days with sunshine of 19. Eleven of the 15 mostly cloudy days had rainfall which exceeded the normal seven days with rain or showers.
After a sunny Canada Day, “the first half of July was mostly a continuation of the dull and sometimes wet weather of late June that nearly hobbled the summer solstice,” reported Chris Carss, a volunteer weather observer/recorder for Environment Canada at his Chemainus home.
“The summer weather returned during the second half of the month, but there was just enough rain on a few days to provide some continuation of the drought relief that was one benefit of the early July wet spell.”
Temperatures were a bit below normal during the first half of the month, Carss pointed out, but then bumped up slightly above normal during the second half. As a result, the average temperatures for the month as a whole calculated to right on normal.
“Not surprisingly, the inverse was true for the monthly rainfall which came mostly during the cooler first half, then gave way to below normal rainfall during the second half, with the overall monthly total coming out very close to normal,” added Carss. “For those who needed some rain in July, this was a significant improvement over June, which despite the post-solstice showers, had way below normal rainfall for the month overall.”
July ended with some light rain that continued into the first day of August. After that, sunny and warm weather returned.
“August marks a full return to drought conditions with mostly sunny weather and near normal temperatures expected to continue,” Carss noted. “Rainfall events will be few and far between, and will fall well short of what will be needed to provide further relief from the drought. The summer solstice and early July notwithstanding, this dry summer weather has been with us most of the time since early May, and appears likely to continue well into September.”
July’s mean maximum temperature was right on the normal of 23.7 Celsius. The mean minimum was 14.2 C, slightly higher than the normal of 13.3 C.
The extreme maximum of 29 C occurred on July 26 and the extreme minimum of 10.5 C on July 19.