Cold temperature records broken on Vancouver Island

Cold temperature records broken on Vancouver Island
CHEK
Daily minimum temperature records were broken in Victoria and other parts of Vancouver Island on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10, 2019.

If you dug out your hats and gloves this week, you weren’t alone.

Early Thursday morning, the temperature at the Victoria International Airport was 0.0 C, tying the old Oct. 10 record set in 1969. But over at the University of Victoria, the temperature was 0.4 C, beating an old record set 129 years ago in 1890.

On Wednesday, a temperature record was broken at the Victoria International Airport with a daily minimum temperature of 0.6 C. The old record was 1.7 C set in 1948.

Armel Castellan, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said no records were broken at Victoria Gonzales on Wednesday or Thursday. However, Thursday morning’s temperature of 3.3 C was the second coldest on record for Oct. 10. The coldest was 2.2 C in 1890.

Other areas of Vancouver Island also broke cold temperature records on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Thursday, Campbell River went below zero to -5 C, breaking the old record of -3 C set in 1983. The temperature in Nanaimo was at -1.5 C, beating the old record of 0 C in 1948.

Port Alberni broke its old record of -1.1 C set in 1948 with a new temperature of -2.7 C. And Port Hardy record a temperature of -1.8 C Thursday morning. The old record was -0.6 C in 1972.

The Malahat, Port Alberni and Port Hardy also broke daily minimum temperature records on Wednesday.

Record-breaking lows are possible again tonight for many Vancouver Island locations.

Temperatures are expected to return closer to seasonal later this week when rain is expected. The average temperatures for October in Victoria are highs of around 14 C and minimum lows of around 9 C.

Environment Canada forecasts are predicting temperatures will be slightly warmer than normal during the last three months of the year.

New data released last Friday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, an organization funded by the European Union that tracks temperatures around the world, shows globally September was the hottest month on record, tying the old record set in 2016.

According to the service, last month was 0.57 degrees Celsius warmer than the average for September from 1981 to 2010.

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