Parts of Vancouver Island continue to sit in a dry spell. After a record setting 55 days with no precipitation, Greater Victoria is once again feeling the heat. Tyler Bennett has more.
It’s another hot and dry day in Victoria, many families coming to the local water park to cool off and beat the heat.
“I’m enjoying it,” Judy Olsen says, “we make sure we have the sunscreen on.”
“We’ve been absolutely blessed with this weather,” Kyle, enjoying the sunny day with his kids says, “with all the snow that came this year, and with having this weather, we just gotta go out there and take advantage of it while we can.”
Over at Dan’s Farm and Country Market, there’s less fun to be had. After a record breaking dry spell back in July and August, it’s now been 20 days without precipitation, making it a little more difficult for Dan Ponchet to harvest his crops.
“we have to a lot more harvesting on a very closer window of opportunity for ripening,” Ponchet says, “we have to be very careful, things ripen very quickly in this kind of weather.”
Ponchet notes that his farm had to take special measures in order to keep his crops growing this summer.
“Before we were planting we had to water the ground because you can’t plant on this super dry, fluffy ground, you gotta have some moisture content in it, so we were having to water before we plant as well, so something we’re not used to doing as much, but, whatever we have to do.”
With no precipitation expected until next weekend, Ponchet isn’t too worried. Despite the hefty water bill, the sunny skies draw in customers.
“If we get any amount of rain, we get depressed, and we don’t feel like going out so much, so I think it’s better to have it not quite so hot, but just to keep the sunny days would be nice for us.”
With the dry spell, stage one water restrictions are in place, and the CRD is urging Victorians to reserve their water use until rainy days return.
Tyler Bennett
