While summer will be warmer than usual for most of Canada, coastal BC looks to be getting normal or cooler temperatures.
That comes from this year’s summer forecast by Environment and Climate Change Canada, with meteorologist Ken Dosanjh saying there’s no strong indication of temperatures above or below normal for the province.
“Most of those probabilities are more residing in eastern Canada but for BC, the Interior has some subtle signatures of potentially above normal for the summer,” said Dosanjh.
“But for June, July, and August for the south coast specifically, the probability of near-normal temperatures seems most likely.”
Dosanjh says that the south coast has seen both near-normal temperatures and precipitation during the spring, a change compared to the warm and dry spring last year. For Vancouver Island, charts show generally near-normal temperatures in the summer months.
He says this comes following the El Niño pattern.
“We’ve been in an El Niño pattern for the past year or so, and we are starting to go into more neutral conditions and possibly we could see more La Niña patterns into the fall and onwards,” said Dosanj.
“Those indications could contribute to why the coastal ranges are seeing more subtlety.”
In terms of drought, he says the River Forecast Centre has drought levels so far at 1 for the Sunshine Coast and West Vancouver Island, and 2 for east Vancouver Island; higher numbers mean drier conditions.
Along with the temperatures, there is a probability that precipitation will be above-normal in the coming months.
