People all over Vancouver Island woke up this morning to a wet and cold downpour. Many had to get their winter jackets out and arm themselves with umbrellas before stepping outside, into what is known as “Juneuary.”
“For the next five, six days, we’re not going to see the sun, at least wall to wall, morning to evening,” said Armel Castellan, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. “We’re probably going to get a little peaks here and there, but mostly, it’s more of a showery, unsettled pattern.”
The second half of June, he said, will see higher temperatures.
“The first half of June has been cooler than normal and we’re probably going to see it last until about the middle of the month, where we start to switch over to a more ridgy, high-pressure pattern where we might see a little bit of warmth again, like we did for parts of May,” Castellan said.
This kind of weather, he added, is typical for the season.
“June is kind of a mixed bag every year,” he said. “We typically are transitioning to that beautiful summer weather – sometimes drought, sometimes wildfire inducing, but sometimes, it gives us rain.”
But even with all of this rain, Castellan noted we are still short of average levels of precipitation, following a dry February, March and April.
“For the gardens and the ecosystems, having some June rains is a pretty good moment,” he said.
At this time in 2019, the Island was heading into a heatwave, with temperatures in the high 20s.
Castellan said June weather last year was normal too – it was just flipped. There was warmer weather at the start of the month, and rain towards the end of June.
“Weather can play some interesting tricks, anomalies of all kinds,” he explained.
A few weeks ago, Greater Victoria saw a tornado touch down in Saanich. This weekend, there was lightning in Port Alberni.
“If you’re going camping, particularly in the interior, but even here on the coast: when thunder roars, go indoors,” Castellan said. “No one wants to become a statistic.”
Jasmine Bala
