Higher than average precipitation in September provided the mid-Island with some badly needed rain to help ease drought conditions. (File photo)

By Jordan Davidson

one drop at a time

Slow, steady September rain ‘best-case scenario’ for easing Island’s drought concerns

Oct 4, 2023 | 3:17 PM

NANAIMO — Vancouver Island finally received some much-needed precipitation in September.

Hot and dry weather has been plaguing much of B.C. for over a year breaking numerous local weather records, including one of the warmest Augusts in Nanaimo’s history.

Meteorologist Bobby Sekhon said in a major turn of events, the mid-Island was one of the wettest places in the province last month.

“We actually received about 63 millimetres of precipitation in the area compared to the normal of about 36 millimetres, so that was quite a bit above normal. In terms of temperatures, it was almost bang on. It was just the return of some wetter weather that was the story.”

Minor storms from Sept. 19-26 dropped around 10 millimetres of precipitation a day on Nanaimo, providing the ground with a badly needed drink.

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The precipitation was enough to lift all fire restrictions in the Coastal Fire Centre, after being in place in place for the entire summer.

Sekhon hopes to see those rain events with periods of dry, warm days in between continue for the rest of October to ease us out of the drought conditions, without the risk of flooding.

The current weather forecast appears to agree with him, with a storm system developing in the Pacific expecting to bring lower temperatures and rain starting Oct. 8.

“Expect a wet start to the week early next week. In terms of beyond that, we’re looking at some probability of temperatures remaining above normal or near normal, and next week it’s going to be wet.”

Drought
Hydrologist with the B.C. River Forcast Centre Jonathan Boyd said the weather for September has been a “best-case scenario” in terms of easing us out of drought conditions.

He said if the weather pattern from September continues, we could be drought-free by early November.

“It’s exactly what we need on the Island, and I think a lot of the vegetation is just parched and very thirsty for water and so is the ground too. We saw some reasonable rises in the (water) flows, but nothing in terms of any extreme risk of flooding.”

As of Oct. 4, Vancouver Island sits at a drought level four, which was recently lowered from the highest level five, where it was for much of the summer, according to the B.C. drought information portal.

Boyd said the Provincial Technical Drought Working Group, which provides drought level updates for major watersheds in the province, is meeting on Oct. 5, and he expects they’ll recommend the drought level to be lowered even further for parts of the Island.

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