After several weeks of rainy conditions and cool temperatures in the Cowichan Valley, summer weather is expected to return by the weekend.
While the temperatures are expected to remain in the teens until Friday, along with mostly overcast and sometimes rainy skies, Environment Canada is forecasting mainly sunny skies starting Saturday, with a temperature of 25 C.
Armel Castellan, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the temperatures are expected to continue to increase incrementally each day into the middle of next week, peaking by Wednesday or Thursday.
“The average daytime temperatures at this time of year are usually about 18 or 19 C, but they could be as much as 10 C higher by the weekend,” Castellan said.
“The region is currently in a high-pressure ridge that is pressed in between two low-pressure systems over the Prairies and the Pacific Ocean. The weather is not expected to change much before the end of next week, at least.”
Castellan said the mainly hot and sunny weather is expected to continue into July, and the long-range seasonal forecast is calling for higher than normal temperatures for July, August and September.
He said it’s expected that temperatures will be several degrees higher than normal this summer, but he said that will be spread out over the season, with some days recording temperatures a few degrees above normal, while others days could be a few degrees below the average.
As for precipitation forecasts for the summer, Castellan said long-range forecasts for that are much harder for meteorologists to determine.
But he said that the last three summers saw droughts in the region, and he expects we’ll see much of the same this year as well.
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“We’ve had higher than normal temperatures this spring, particularly in May, and that has prematurely depleted the snow packs in the mountains and has seen many rivers already depleted of water,” Castellan said.
“It’s a clear indication that we’ll likely see drought conditions again this summer.”
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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