NANAIMO — Stretches of warm weather followed by rain showers was the story weather-wise for much of B.C. last month, and the mid-Island was no different.
A daily mean temperature of around 9.0 degrees Celsius for Nanaimo made April warmer than usual but much drier, with a similar pattern across much of Vancouver Island.
That’s according to warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada Lisa Erven who said weather patterns were also very similar province-wide last month.
“We came in with about 44 per cent of the normal April precipitation, and most of that precipitation was actually confined to the first two weeks of the month. It’s felt dry because most recently, what we’ve been experiencing is a very dry pattern.”
She said a few days in April came close to breaking records in the Harbour City.
April 17 reached a temperature of 20.2 degrees, ranking fifth on the all-time high temperature list for that day, and April 25 reached 22.6 degrees, good enough for the third-hottest on record.
Erven said the April results make sense given the overall weather pattern that’s been impacting all of B.C. recently.
“We’ve really fluctuated from ridges of high pressure bringing warmer than normal conditions to what we call troughs of lower pressure, or weather systems moving across which bring more of those cloudy skies, cooler temperatures.”
Looking ahead into the rest of May, Erven said it’s likely those weather pattern will continue, with a warmer start to the month followed by a system moving in on Friday, May 2, bringing with it a potential for windy conditions and showers across much of Vancouver Island.
“And then, once again, we’ve got a ridge of high pressure trying to redevelop for early next week, so we’ll start to see those temperatures come right back up into the high teens and plenty of sunshine. For the short term, we’re going to continue with this pattern of periods of sort of cooler, more showery weather, mixed in with periods of warmer than normal temperatures and sunshine.”
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