After a short warm stretch in Victoria, the region saw more rain in one day on Sunday than it normally gets in the whole month of July.
At 22 millimetres, the Victoria Airport saw its second-most amount of rain in one day in July, behind the wettest July day of 50 mm set in July 1993.
Generally, Victoria receives 17.3 mm throughout the month of July.
Armel Castellan, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the unusually high levels of rain is caused by a Rex block weather pattern.
“We have this kind of a Rex block and which means that we have an upper cold low kind of not in the big jetstream, so it’s not moving very fast,” Castellan said in an interview with CHEK News.
“And we’re dealing with a return flow. So flow is coming in from kind of the Northeast, yesterday was more east and today it’s a little bit more northeast, and as the low progresses inland, it’s going to become more of Northwest or westerly. But all that to say is it’s a peculiar flow, we don’t see it that often.”
☔️ We don’t usually get too excited about breaking daily #weather records…but🥈wettest July day EVER recorded at #yyj really puts yesterday’s 🌧 into perspective. It was more than we normally get in the entire month! @CHEK_News @CHEK_media #BCStorm #yyjwx #BCwx ☔️☔️☔️ https://t.co/yysLyHeNQl
— Tess van Straaten (@tessvanstraaten) July 4, 2022
Castellan says it is expected we will continue to see this period of short warm, followed by rain until at least mid-July.
“Looking at a month at a time, really shows that mid July to mid August, so that’s kind of the next four week chunk there, after we get for the next 10 days or so, as having high probabilities of above seasonal values,” Castellan said. “Generally southern coastal B.C. has a fairly strong signal.”
Castellan notes that forecast is still 10 days away so it is subject to change.
Although this may not be the summer weather people are hoping for, Castellan says this rain may have a positive effect on the wildfires the province normally sees through summer.
“June and early July are when we really want to see rain, for that reason alone,” Castellan said. “So if you don’t get too much from a flooding or snow melt, flash flooding or land side perspective, then it’s a very good thing from a wildfire perspective.”
The province reports that there have been 218 wildfires so far this year, with 19 currently active as of Monday, July 4, however, none of them are currently active in the Coastal Fire Centre.
Laura Brougham
