What's in store for summer weather on Vancouver Island?
![inner harbour The Victoria Inner Harbor is pictured: (CTV News)](/content/dam/ctvnews/en/images/2021/7/21/inner-harbour-1-5518550-1627399702239.jpg)
The arrival of June brings on the start of summer. So what can we expect for summer 2023? We’ll get to that in a minute.
First, let’s look back to spring, and more specifically the month of May. While it felt at times we were still stuck in winter mode, the month we just left broke that feeling in a big way.
March and April were pretty normal for the most part, although we didn’t get as much moisture as we would’ve liked. As we ended our third year with La Nina, the weather pattern held much of the big moisture to the south and gave heavy rain and bigger snow packs to California and Nevada. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we received what was left, meaning less moisture.
There were little bumps in temperature during the spring also. We had a record-setting weekend in the middle of March and we were able to determine that this year an El Nino would be building into the summer.
April was mostly typical, but as we started getting into the month of May we started seeing warmer temperatures – not just here on Vancouver Island, but across Western Canada and into parts of Ontario and Quebec.
Now that May has come and gone, we can see what it did deliver weather wise. Here on the island we had the warmest May recorded. Two weather stations in Greater Victoria – the airport and Gonzales – along with stations in Nanaimo, Comox and Campbell River were all number one for heat since they started tracking data. Our mean temperatures were 2 to 4 degrees warmer throughout much of the province and with that we saw 279 extreme daytime highs and 22 precipitation records during May.
If you look at the precipitation numbers from meteorological spring (March/April/May), we can see we are lagging behind and the farther south you go, the bigger the lag is. With lower moisture numbers, we’re already preparing for a very dry summer.
As we look ahead to summer, we have already established that it’s an El Nino year and it will get stronger the deeper as we get into the year.
We’re seeing both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans warming up at a faster pace than normal and numbers seem to be approx. 1-3 degrees warmer on average.
We're expecting a hotter than average summer throughout B.C. and rain seems to be lacking also.
That’s not saying we’re going to see weeks and weeks of temperatures in the 30s and 40s but it will be warmer and drier than usual and at a few points we’ll deal with heat waves and probable drought conditions through many areas.
It’s important we pay attention to the dry conditions as the risk of wildfires will be high this year. We’ve already been dealing with bad situations throughout the country.
Best case scenario is we get a run of sunshine and warm days followed by some moisture to keep things fresh. And just like your summer song this year, hopefully it stays on repeat. Of course, we know that weather doesn’t do what we want. It does what it wants and we just have to deal with it the best we can.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6977053.1721909931!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
'Sick to my stomach': People grieve Jasper National Park by sharing favourite photos
As an out-of-control wildfire roared through Alberta’s famed Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday, many are fearing the worst as officials warned of 'significant loss' within the area.
DEVELOPING Jasper wildfire burns buildings, while poor air quality forces some fire crews out
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
Canadian women's soccer team staffer given suspended prison sentence over drone incident, prosecutor says
A Canada women's soccer team staffer has been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence after flying a drone to film the closed-door training session of the New Zealand team on Monday, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Sale of envoy's NYC condo 'expected to exceed' $9M: government
The current official residence for Canada's representative in New York City is 'being readied for sale,' according to a spokesperson from Global Affairs Canada.
'I'm so broke': Two Toronto women speak out after losing $76,000 in romance scam
Two women from the Toronto area are speaking out after losing thousands of dollars to a romance scam, including a single mother who lost $62,000.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Loblaw to settle class action over bread price-fixing for $500 million
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. say they have agreed to pay $500 million to settle a pair of class-action lawsuits regarding their involvement in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.
EXCLUSIVE One address, 76 foreign currency dealers: Inside Canada's money service business 'clusters'
An IJF and CTV News investigation has found dozens of cases across Canada where multiple money services businesses (MSBs) are incorporated at the same address, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the location's actual occupant. One money laundering expert calls it an 'abuse of the system.'
An unwelcome attendee has joined the Paris Olympic Games: COVID-19
After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.