Chemainus weather observer Chris Carss characterized October weather as falling into three distinct phases: normal and somewhat changeable; mostly sunny and mild; then rainy and cool.
“The first eight days of the month brought a seasonal mix of rain and some sun with temperatures that varied from near to a few degrees below normal,” noted Carss, who records data on a volunteer basis for Environment Canada at his home.
“Then an extraordinarily long sunny and mild Indian summer took over for a period of two consecutive weeks, almost unheard of on the West Coast in autumn. Then, once again, it was payback time with nine consecutive days with rain for the last third of the month, which was a lot less than the payback we had at the end of summer in September.”
The first few days of November brought a return to more varied conditions similar to the beginning of October, Carss added.
“This mix of sun, cloud, and some rain is expected to continue until about the 24th, after which time the winter wet season should get seriously underway.”
To recap the October statistics, the mean maximum temperature of 14.7 degrees Celsius was just above the normal of 14.1 C; the mean minimum of 7.4 C was right on the normal mark; the extreme maximum of 19 C occurred on Oct. 17, with the extreme minimum of 3 C on Oct. 4; days of mostly or partly sunny conditions amounted to 17 compared to the normal number of days with sunshine of 12; days that were mostly cloudy totalled 14, of which 13 had rainfall, with the normal precipitation days being 15; and the total rainfall of 98.3 millimetres fell well below the normal of 133.6 mm.