Hottest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was this time last year

As the temperature soared for a fourth straight day on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, people were doing what they could to keep cool.

Many were soaking up the sun Monday after a stretch of cool, wet weather to cap off spring.

“I am getting wet, really wet!” said four-year-old Jack Hadi, playing at the Beacon Hill park watering can splash park.

“It’s only for a few days so we do things like this — go to the water parks, the splash pads,” added Jack’s mom, Carissa Hadi.

Others found relief in all the shade as the B.C. South Coast sizzled in an end-of-June heatwave for the second year in a row.

“We’re sticking to the shade outside and when we’re at home, the blinds are drawn and the lights are off and just drinking a lot of cool beverages,” said Victoria resident Seanna Nichol.

Temperatures in Victoria shot 10 degrees above the seasonal high of 21 degrees on Sunday to an official high of 30.9°C  at the Victoria Gonzales weather station near downtown.

But that’s still nearly 10 degrees lower than June 2021’s historic heat dome, which saw Victoria hit 38.3°C on June 27th and 39.8°C on June 28th— the hottest day ever recorded here.

“Last year’s heat dome was a similar blocking ridge, it just so happened the atmosphere was so much thicker, it was a stronger ridge,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan. “We reached almost 40°C in downtown Victoria, which is incredible.”

The scorching heat dome from June 25 to 29, 2021, buckled sidewalks and resulted in more than 600 deaths in B.C. — prompting a new heat alert warning system.

But even though Victoria’s been above 29°C for the last three days, cooler overnight lows didn’t quite meet the heat warning criteria and the long-range forecast is calling for July to be fairly close to seasonal.

“Mother Nature’s air conditioning, which is the Pacific Ocean in our case, is going to have that moderating or temperate effect on any signature we have,” Castellan says. “That said, if we set up with another blocking ridge and get outflow conditions from the interior, all bets are off.”

Editorial Policies Report an Error