Drier conditions are here in the Chemainus Valley.
“April was drier than usual with near normal temperatures and slightly above normal sunshine,” pointed out Chemainus weather observer/recorder Chris Carss in his regular monthly report. “Most of what rainfall there was came during the first three weeks of the month with only occasional sunny breaks in between periods of mostly light rain.
“This left the final seven days of April bathed in copious sunshine and provided the first taste of summer of the year with a maximum temperature of 20.5C on the very last days of the month,” he added. “Oddly, the coldest morning of the month was a chilly 4C as late as April 27 instead of the early part of the month as is more typical.”
The sunny and dry conditions have continued into the early part of May and Carss indicated there’s a strong possibility the summer weather may be here to stay until at least early September.
“This trend to early warm summers began at least five years now and seems to show no sign of abating,” he noted. “It could indicate that global warming is really starting to affect our summer temperatures and sunshine on Vancouver Island.
“However, this continues to be balanced by cool snowy or wet weather in the late fall and winter which can now chill out our early or pre-spring transitional period in February.”
The mean maximum temperature in April was 14.5C, right around the normal of 14.0C. The mean minimum of 6.4C was slightly above the normal of 5.6C.
Days of mostly or partly sunny conditions during the month amounted to 12, with the normal days of sunshine being 10.
Of the 18 mostly cloudy days, 12 had precipitation compared to the normal of 14 days.
April’s total rainfall of 58.3 mm was a drop from the normal of 74.9 mm.