Streak of record-breaking weather in B.C. continues, but for how long?
It’s been an unforgettable few years for extreme weather in British Columbia—a trend that continues today even in the midst of clear, sunny skies.
A remarkable stretch of summer-like heat continues to crank over B.C. as we head through the middle of October, bringing eye-popping temperature anomalies to the South Coast and Vancouver Island.
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Temperature extremes in the fall don’t register the same in our minds as they do when it’s the middle of July. After all, it’s comfortable enough to wear short-sleeve shirts and open the windows.
But the extent and duration of above-seasonal readings we’ve seen—and will continue to see—across B.C. is nothing short of astounding.
On Saturday, Squamish was the hot spot in Canada reaching 29.1°C, just 0.4 degrees shy of its all-time October temperature record of 29.5°C set back on Oct. 6, 2022.
Things aren’t much better across the Lower Mainland, where Abbotsford is looking at several noteworthy heat records for the month of October.
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The city is enduring its longest stretch of 20°C or warmer temperatures ever measured in October, and its high of 25°C on Oct. 13 was the warmest temperature on record so late in the year.
Comox can’t escape the ridge, either. Daytime highs so far this month have soared into the 20s more often this month than in any other October on record.
The community has seen nine days of 20°C temperatures or warmer, with several more in the forecast in the coming days. By the end of this stretch of heat, Comox will have beaten the old record of 20-degree October days threefold.
Warmer-than-seasonal conditions will persist heading into this week, but—finally there is some normalcy in sight.
Forecasters expect a pattern change to arrive in B.C. by the end of the month, bringing cooler and wetter weather that’s more in line with what you’d expect to see in the heart of fall.
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Thumbnail courtesy of M.D. Silverbrooke, taken in Vancouver, B.C.
