November began with an early taste of winter in Chemainus in the form of modest amounts of rain mixed with snow intermittently during the first four days.
In his regular monthly summary, Chemainus weather observer Chris Carss added the remainder of the first seven days of the month were dry, but with continuing below normal temperatures.
“After that, the weather turned milder but very wet with copious amounts of rain that lasted until late November before tapering off to lighter rain that lasted into early this month,” he noted.
A total of five days in November were mostly sunny, four of which came during the first week of the month when it wasn’t raining or snowing. This was two less than the normal of 7 seven sunny or partly sunny days.
Of the 25 remaining cloudy days, a total of 22 produced measurable precipitation, three more than the normal of 19, according to Carss.
The total rainfall for the month was 324.5 millimetres, more than 100 mm above the normal of 209.4 mm. The total snowfall was 2.2 centimetres, with all of it falling near the beginning of the month. This was well below the normal of 7.8 cm which usually occurs near the end of the month.
November’s mean daily maximum temperature was 8.7 degrees Celsius (normal 9.1 C), with a mean minimum of 4.4 C (normal 4.2 C). The extreme maximum of 16.5 occurred on Nov. 22 and the extreme minimum of -1.5 C happened on both Nov. 4 and 6.
“After a bit of a wet start, the remainder of December is expected to see some rare sunshine and above normal daytime temperatures that should last until about the weekend before Christmas,” Carss indicated.
Rain occasionally mixed with wet snow should be back by the 25th, he added, but probably not enough for a White Christmas this year.