Nanaimo's spray parks will see increased traffic this weekend as the summer weather hits the island.(Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

temperature rising

More sun and warmth to finally hit mid Island as summer officially arrives

Jun 21, 2022 | 1:48 PM

NANAIMO — It looks like the first week of summer will bring a clear sky and warm weather many Island residents have been waiting for.

Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan said the change in weather patterns will be pretty obvious, with the forecast predicting to go above the 25 celsius mark by the weekend.

“This will definitely bring summer to the neighbourhood in a quick hurry because we haven’t seen those kinds of temperatures so far. We’re going towards near-normal or even above those seasonal norms,”Castellan said, with summer officially arriving on Tuesday, June 21.

He said its been a very cool and wet spring so far, but we are starting to shift toward warmer temperatures which are to be expected for this time of year.

“The heat dome last year was obviously an extraordinary version of that, but as we get deeper into June and certainly by the first or second week of July, that’s when our hottest temperatures are normal for this time of year, lasting right through until mid-August.”

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He said we have been trailing behind our seasonal average temperatures so far this year.

That’s been evident by the cool and wet weather seen across most of B.C. this spring, which people dubbed “the eternal spring”.

For July, Castellan said the patterns show while the northern half of the province will likely see higher than average temperatures, it’ll still be a bit cooler than normal for the southern and coastal areas.

While the temperatures are rising for this week, that doesn’t mean it’ll stay like that for the next few months.

“Yes, the temperatures are going to keep climbing because we are going into July, but are they going to reach way above seasonal normals? Probably not, though it’s not impossible to see a couple of days or even a week of above seasonal values in that time stretch.”

While August is still a bit too far out to predict, Castellan said the July pattern will likely continue for the southern part of the province.

“Things are either close to normal seasonal values or maybe even a couple of degrees below, but these are the warmest and driest times of the year, so that theme continues.”

With June continuing the cool and wet trend, it doesn’t appear we broke any precipitation records.

As of June 15, most areas on the Island experienced higher than normal levels of precipitation.

Nanaimo saw 58 millimetres of rain, which is about 125 per cent of the average.

Comox saw 150 per cent of their average level of rain, while Victoria saw between 120 to 160 per cent of their average rain level.

Port Hardy was one of the only places on the Island that saw less than average precipitation values for the first two weeks of June.

Castellan said there are no major storms in the immediate forecast either, but they are something to keep an eye on as it is the season, but uncommon for this side of Vancouver Island.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow