Swimmers enjoy a beautiful Parksville sunset to end a hot day on Wednesday, July 27 (submitted photo/Alanah Shields)

By Jordan Davidson

Hottest. August. Ever.

More weather records broken for Nanaimo thanks to late summer heat wave

Sep 2, 2022 | 5:24 AM

NANAIMO — It’s official: August was the hottest August the Harbour City has ever seen.

With an average daily temperature of 20.8 degrees, Nanaimo blew past our average of 18.2 degrees, with records going back to the late 1800’s.

Meteorologist with Environment Canada Doug Lundquist said not only was August hot, but it was also exceptionally dry.

“It was the third driest August ever with just around one millimetres (of rain) when you usually get 28 millimetres. Very extraordinary weather.”

In August of 1967, Nanaimo had zero millimetres of precipitation.

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He said more than half of the province also experienced their hottest August’s ever, with Abbotsford and Fort St. John experiencing their hottest month ever recorded.

Lundquist said while he wouldn’t put Nanaimo in drought territory, it is very dry, but our incredibly wet fall, winter, and spring probably helped keep things from getting too crispy.

While looking at the summer as a whole, he said we didn’t crack the top five for hottest summers, but it was definitely warmer than average.

“Nanaimo was almost one and a half degrees warmer than average at 18.7 degrees, where you usually have 17.3 degrees.”

Looking ahead to fall, Lundquist said the waters of the Pacific Ocean are still very warm, with some areas still setting records for sea surface temperatures.

“Since most of our storms come from the west, it’s highly likely that fall will be warmer than average. That said, things are changing a little bit here, finally, the switch is going to go from this hot part of summer to move into fall.”

He said this current heat wave we’re riding is out of the ordinary for late August/early September, with temperatures hitting 10 degrees higher than average for the week.

But it won’t last.

“This is extraordinary for us to have summer persist that long. Typically by the time the PNE parade happens in Vancouver, we start to get rain, so this is a week or two weeks late. This kind of weather sometimes we don’t get mid-summer. But by Saturday we’re getting into a cooler pattern.”

He said while we could get another stretch of warmer weather in the fall, it’s not likely to reach 30 degrees again in Nanaimo for 2022 as wet and stormy weather is expected to hit the Island this fall.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow