Brace yourself for more heat, and some haze
Temperatures could hit 30s next week on the heels of a hotter, drier summer
Victoria’s hot, dry summer will continue through the weekend, with temperatures possibly reaching into the 30s early next week and perhaps even bringing a return of smoky haze from wildfires burning on the mainland.
Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Greater Victoria as a strong ridge of high pressure is expected to push temperatures into the low 30s by Monday and Tuesday — about nine degrees higher than normal for this time of year.
“We are expecting this ridge of high pressure to rebuild over southern B.C. over the weekend,” said Environment Canada Meteorologist Cindy Yu.
“By next Monday and Tuesday, the ridge will be at its peak.”
Environment Canada notes the air mass will also become stagnant and, combined with developing outflow winds, it is possible that wildfire smoke will make its way back out to the coast.
“By next Monday or Tuesday, we see the surface ridge of high pressure will develop again in the B.C. Interior, and then there’s a trough of low pressure developing on the coast.
“With that pressure contrast, we tend to get something called an outflow wind on the coast, which means that instead of the normal flow off the water from the west to the east, we get this outflow wind where the wind goes from east to west,” Yu said.
“Under that scenario in the last episode, we’ve seen some of the wildfire smoke drift onto the coast. So that could potentially be the case on Monday and Tuesday again,” she said.
The unseasonably high temperatures could last until at least Wednesday and come on the heels of what’s been a hotter and drier than normal summer.
For June, July and August — considered the meteorological summer — the average temperature (recorded at the Victoria International Airport) was 17.1 compared with the norm of 16.2, making it the seventh hottest summer on record, Yu said.
Overall during that period, 23 mm of precipitation was recorded compared with the average of 72.3, making it the sixth driest summer on record.
August will be recorded as the second hottest on record, with an average temperature (as recorded at the airport) of 18.2. The normal is 16.8.
The hottest was 2016, with an average temperature of 18.4 degrees.
At Gonzales, the average temperature was 1.5 degrees warmer than normal with an average temperature of 17.4 compared to the norm of 15.9, ranking it as the third hottest August on record.
Greater Victoria set a record in mid-August for consecutive number of days without recorded rain (as recorded at the airport), with a tally of 54.
The previous mark — 53 days — was established in 1986, when the region was without recorded precipitation from July 18 to Sept. 8. Records have been kept at Victoria International Airport since 1940.
August was the fifth driest on record for Victoria as recorded at the airport, Yu said.
“For July we really didn’t get any precipitation. It was the driest July on record,” she said. “Then in August we received 1.4 millimetres of precipitation.”
The numbers change slightly depending on the measuring station. At Gonzales, 0.8 mm of precipitation was recorded in July, making it the 10th driest on record. In August, Gonzales received 1.4 millimetres of precipitation, making it the 11th driest on record.