A year of wild weather was our unanimous choice for the top story of 2021. From record rainfalls, to droughts, sinkholes and snowfalls...little dominated the news cycle quite like the weather this year. (NanaimoNewsNOW photos)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

WILD WEATHER

Top Stories of 2021: Drought, flooding, heat domes & a winter wonderland

Dec 31, 2021 | 12:14 PM

NANAIMO — Several new phrases were added to the social lexicon in 2021, a number of them revolving around the wild weather Nanaimo and Oceanside experienced through the year.

Terms like “heat dome” and “atmospheric river” were without common definition until we experienced their effects which threatened some long standing records and eclipsed others.

The calendar year saw extreme after extreme, with weather dominating the news cycle repeatedly. It was an easy choice for our wild year of weather to be the top story of 2021.

Winter wonderland
A February snow storm should have been the first clue of what Mother Nature had in store for us. The Family Day long weekend blizzard provided everyone an excuse to get out and enjoy a rare snowy blanket which turned local school fields into impromptu snowball battlegrounds.

Environment Canada reported 42.8 centimetres of snow fell at Nanaimo Airport between Friday, Feb. 12 and Monday, Feb. 15. It was the only notable snowfall of the season.

holiday check stops

Nanaimo motorists shine during province-wide crackdown

1h ago

targeted job action

Striking Nanaimo postal workers disrupt Purolator operations

4h ago

final flight

Massive Philippine Mars waterbomber preparing for final Island departure

9h ago

What followed after the February winter blast was, almost literally, nothing.

No Spring Showers, No May Flowers
On its way to recording the fourth driest spring ever in Nanaimo, the airport monitoring station collected just 89.1 millimetres of rainfall through to the end of May.

Rainfall over March, April and May was around 35 per cent of normal, with data collected by Environment Canada going back more than a century.

It was another clue of coming attractions. Little wet weather relief was in store through the start of the summer.

Record Drought
Not a single drop of measurable precipitation fell in Nanaimo between June 15 and Aug. 7, a span of 52 days which smashed a record for the longest drought in Nanaimo’s history.

The dry spell was a contributing factor in two notable wildfires in the region, with both the Holyoak Creek fire near Chemainus and the Mt. Hayes fire near Nanaimo Airport both burning not long after the drought.

While we didn’t get rain during a majority of the summer days, we did get heat…a lot of heat.

Mist nozzles attached to a canopy at Maffeo Sutton Park offers a brief cool-down for people forced to deal with a rare and powerful extended heat wave. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

The Heat Dome
After the fourth driest spring and the longest drought, Mother Nature delivered the region its hottest summer ever on record, with data dating back to 1892.

“It’s not easy to break those records going that far back, but with three to four heatwaves that we saw this year it’s not unexpected,” Bobby Sekhon, Environment Canada meteorologist told NanaimoNewsNOW in September.

A daily mean temperature of 19.5 was generated in large part due to a sweltering heat dome which came a tenth of a degree from setting the hottest temperature ever in Nanaimo.

The mercury boiled to 40.5 degrees on Monday, June 28, the final blow after a week of mind-numbing heat which set multiple June temperature records.

Overnight lows barely dipped below 20 degrees with still, stagnant, boiling air testing cooling units, City infrastructure and people’s patience.

According to the B.C. Coroners Service, nearly 600 people died throughout the province as a result of the heat wave.

Vancouver Island reported 48 heat-related fatalities including 11 in Nanaimo and 20 on the central Island. A majority of deaths on the Island cam between people aged 60-89.

All but two of Vancouver Island’s heat-related deaths took place inside a home.

Making up for lost time
The faucet was finally turned back on in Nanaimo through September. As if trying to play catch up, the region recorded 115 millimetres, or 322 per cent of normal precipitation through the month.

It was the ninth wettest September for Nanaimo, dating back to 1892.

“The September precipitation is really the result of a very active, persistent storm pattern hitting coastal B.C., so this isn’t just a story for Nanaimo,” Lisa Erven, Environment Canada meteorologist, said in early October.

The rain didn’t really stop either. After initially running over dry, parched land, the water soaked into the ground with a continual, steady stream.

Fed by recent rainfall and a high tide, the Nanaimo River rose to very high levels on Monday, Nov. 15. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Widespread flooding
A mid-November event, dubbed an atmospheric river, stalled over much of southwestern B.C., dropping substantial amounts of rain in the region.

Nanaimo saw the worst of it on Monday, Nov. 15 when the Nanaimo River swelled, flooding areas of Cedar. An extra high tide scheduled for the day compounded matters with a handful of evacuations for low-lying residents.

The barrage of water washed out a handful of area roadways but damage was largely contained by the middle of the week. A bridge west of Nanaimo, along Biggs Rd. was closed for several days after City crews were concerned about structural damage.

Effects from the storm were more immediately felt elsewhere. The Malahat Hwy. closed due to a washout, parts of Abbotsford and Merritt were underwater and several Interior highways cut connections to the Lower Mainland and communities like Hope.

It wasn’t until Thursday, Nov. 18 when local residents felt first hand a significant storm disruption with a sink hole opening on Hwy. 19 near Lantzville.

The road was shut for several days as crews worked to excavate, then backfill and re-pave the area which had washed away over the days prior. Traffic backups were extensive, with vehicles taking upwards of five hours to drive from Parksville to Nanaimo on Friday, Nov. 19.

One Final Punch
Mother Nature had one more trick up her sleeve to end the year, with the region getting a sizeable dump of snow over the Christmas holiday.

Homes across the mid-Island reported well over of 18 inches or between 50 to 80 centimetres over a week beginning Dec. 23.

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