September is in the books and it was close to normal for Chemainus.
Temperatures were just slightly above normal, according to veteran Chemainus weather observer Chris Carss, and with slightly below normal sunshine and rainfall.
Days with mostly sunny weather totaled 14, including three where the sun shone through smoky skies that returned for a few days early in the month. This was four days shy of the normal of 18, but the rainfall for the month also fell a little short of normal despite the four extra days with cloud cover.
Of the 16 days that were mostly cloudy, a total of 12 produced measurable rainfall. This was three more than the normal of nine, but the rainfall came mostly in dribs and drabs, so the total accumulated rainfall was actually about four millimetres less than normal.
“The main season of summer weather ended on September 16 as expected, and this was followed by nine days of typical early fall weather with occasional light rain,” noted Carss.
“Temperatures warmed up again as the result of an intermittent Indian summer that began September 26 and is expected to continue until Oct. 6 with daytime highs varying day by day from the mid teens to low 20s. This improvement in the weather is a bit too little and rather a lot too late to be considered a continuation of our departed summer, so still not quite an ‘endless summer’ for this year.
Looking at the long range outlook for the rest of October, Carss suggests a period of dry weather and near normal temperatures until about the middle of the month.
“After a few wet days with below normal temperatures, drier and milder weather is expected to return for the latter part of October until about the last three days of the month,” he indicated. “This should see a return to wetter and cooler conditions that will set the stage for November.”
Recapping September, the mean maximum temperature was 21.2 C (normal 20.1 C); the mean minimum 13.0 C (normal 11.4 C); extreme maximum 31.0 C on Sept. 3 (peak Humidex 35 C); extreme minimum 7.5 C on Sept. 18; rainfall 36.2 mm (normal 40.8 mm).