A strong ridge of high pressure has helped bring unseasonably warm temperatures to the Harbour City. 

By Kyle Ireland

endless summer

Strong high pressure ridge ‘continuing to block’ typical shift into fall weather in Nanaimo

Oct 16, 2022 | 9:10 AM

NANAIMO — With roughly a third of the rainfall and little end in sight to a record run of warm, dry conditions, meteorologists are pinning the current weather pattern on two factors.

In a typical September, the Nanaimo region should normally see 35.8 millimetres of rain, however just 10.8 millimetres was measured this year.

Ken Dosanjh, meteorologist with Environment Canada told NanaimoNewsNOW the warm and dry weather is due to duelling systems.

“We have a strong ridge of high pressure and it’s in the upper levels of the atmosphere and it’s very stagnant and there hasn’t been much of a flow change…it’s continuing to block any potential systems and moving them away from the Island.”

Weather records for the Nanaimo region date back to 1892, the driest the region has seen was back in 1957 when only .5 ml of September rain was recorded.

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Even being well above the 1957 mark, this year is exceptionally abnormal.

“This upper ridge is also creating sinking air which basically warms as it comes closer to the ground. And with that because it’s so dry and warm we’re also affecting wildfire smoke over to the mainland and island.”

October isn’t looking much better.

No measurable precipitation has fallen through the month so far according to Dosanjh, pacing the region well below the 102 millimetres of rainfall we typically see.

“The trees are water stressed, the ground is hard and the concern is all that high precipitation, that would run through would basically run off would could create some possible landslides.”

The lack of moisture is being paired with a run of well-above normal temperatures.

Through Oct. 15, the Nanaimo region broke day time highs six different times.

The weather station at Nanaimo Airport recorded 26.2 degrees on Oct. 7, eclipsing the previous record for the day set back in 1964.

“We are expecting a change but weather that change is more precipitation or cooler temperatures or a combination of both it’s difficult to pin point but we are going to see some sort of pattern change,” Dosanjh said.

Meteorologists are hoping for gradual uptick in precipitation in order to saturate the ground and tree system over a longer period of time, minimalizing the chance of flash flooding.

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