Records fall, but holiday forecast grey

The Victoria area set several temperature records over the past few days, but it doesn’t look as if we’re in for a repeat on the May long weekend.

The Gonzales weather station saw a string of records from Friday through Sunday, beginning with 24.7 C on Friday, up from the previous mark of 21.4 on that day in 2018. On Saturday, the temperature hit 26.8, up from a previous high of 26.7 on that day in 1878. It rose even higher on Sunday to 27.8, up from the high point of 24.8 in 2019.

Balmy weather during the first half of May has been a recent trend around the region, said Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan.

Over the past four years in the Malahat area, the top three temperatures for the 10th of May have been set, he said — although records there go back only to 1986.

At Victoria International Airport, the Friday temperature of 23 fell short of the 23.8 high set in 2015, while Saturday’s 27 beat 25.6 set in 2019 and Sunday’s 27.7 beat 25.3 set in 2019.

The Malahat recorded 24.9 on Saturday and 25.4 on Sunday, in both cases breaking 2019 records by about half a degree.

Farther north, Comox/Courtenay reached 28.2 on Sunday, an increase from the previous high of 25.6 for that day in 1968.

“Quite a few records,” Castellan said. “There’s also some in the Fraser Valley. It was certainly west-B.C. specific.” Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert and Kitimat also broke temperature records.

For the long weekend, some precipitation is in the forecast, Castellan said.

There is a chance of rain today, Wednesday and Thursday, when the forecast calls for a mix of sun and cloud. The temperature forecast is 14 today, 16 Wednesday and 16 Thursday.

“As we look into the weekend, it’s not necessarily a haymaker type of event, but we’re probably going to see some spotty showers,” he said. “It certainly looks like overall, we’re out of that really anomalous heat, but nonetheless we’re not in anything cooler than normal.

“This is very much on par for this time of year.”