Where did summer go? Cloudy, cooler weather to linger this week

If you’re craving sunny, hot weather, this isn’t the week for you.

This first full week of July is a bit unsettled in part thanks to another cold low; a feature that is fairly unusual for this time of year.

Although some island towns were warm Monday, it was quite windy. Yesterday’s gusts peaked between 30 km/h and 60 km/h along the west coast and near the Juan de Fuca Strait. We’ve also seen spotty showers, including early this morning in coastal communities near Sooke and north of Nanaimo. 

Cold lows are circular air masses where the temperature at the centre of the system is cold both at the surface and aloft. These tend to bring plenty of clouds and precipitation, and they usually swirl around slowly in their counterclockwise fashion, taking their time to clear out. 

While one low clears to the east by Wednesday, giving us a brief dry break, another such a weather pattern will approach Wednesday night, giving showery and rainy weather again. The inclement weather hits the north island first, then slips southward. After a couple of days a storm approaching from the Gulf of Alaska will combine with the lingering effects of the upper low and that means more unsettled weather through the weekend. 

So when will it clear up? Sunday starts to turn around, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until the middle of next week for summer to return with warmer temperatures and dry conditions all over the island.