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Chemainus Valley’s summer hasn’t started in typical fashion

Sunshine not happening regularly since the solstice in June
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Weather pranksters are clearly at work.

The official solstice and other unofficial kickoffs to the season aside, summer has almost been conspicuous by its absence since the last 10 days of June.

“By the start of July, it looked like full-on summer had returned, just in time for our national holiday,” noted Chemainus weather observer/recorder Chris Carss, who compiles statistics on a volunteer basis for Environment Canada.

“However, the weather pranks returned the very next day and the rest of the week bounced back and forth from cool, wet spring weather on some days to warmer but still mostly cloudy summer conditions on other days. The outlook for the rest of July indicates a return to more normal temperatures and overall weather, but sunshine may remain a scarce commodity for the rest of the month, with just a few sunny days here and there.”

June was another mostly warm and dry month across the Chemainus Valley, although the temperature anomalies were a bit less than in May.

According to Carss, the mean daily temperatures averaged about a degree above normal, compared to 2 C above normal in May. The total rainfall for the month was less than half the June normal that put the area well within drought conditions.

“There were no less than five days that almost had rain - showers offshore but not in town, almost as many days as actually produced any rainfall,” Carss added. “Mother Nature played a bit of joke on those who celebrated the June solstice as the ‘kick-off’ to summer.

“Apart from the fact we’ve had summer weather most of the time since early May, the warmest day of June occurred over a week before the beginning of the calendar summer. To complete the prank, the last week of the month after the solstice saw two days that were decidedly spring-like with sprinkles of rain and temperatures failing to crack 20 C on the 23rd and 28th. The only consolation for those who attach any importance to the calendar summer was that the coolest temperature for June followed the normal pattern of occurring early in the month, well before the solstice.”

June’s mean maximum temperature was 22.4 C, slightly above the normal of 21 C. The mean minimum of 12.4 C was also marginally above the normal of 11.8 C.

The thermometer hit an extreme maximum of 30.0 C on June 12 and the extreme minimum of 8.5 C occurred on June 6.

There were 17 days of mostly or partly sunny conditions, three above the normal. Of the 13 days with mostly cloudy conditions, six produced rainfall.

The normal number of days with rain or showers is 10.

Total rainfall of 19.6 millimetres was a drop in the bucket compared to the normal of 43.5 mm.



Don Bodger

About the Author: Don Bodger

I've been a part of the newspaper industry since 1980 when I began on a part-time basis covering sports for the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle.
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