The forecast over the next few days looks positively summery! They’re calling for 26C on Sunday and 28C on Monday.

Could we already be looking at a winner for the “When will we hit 30C” contest?!

If the 7 day forecast holds we should have highs above 20C at least until next weekend. There is not a hint of precipitation in the GFS model for the next 7 days. So you will need to water your gardens. Please try to conserve water. This year has already been very dry and I think the summer will be as well. Best time to water is early in the morning, before 9 or 10AM so that the water has a chance to soak in and doesn’t evaporate and the plants then can use it all day to survive the onslaught of the summer sun!

There is a system forecast to cross over us with a bunch of rain in the week of June 8, but super long range forecasts being what they are, it’s hard to know whether that will actually happen.

Enjoy the weather! And if you haven’t already, click the Summer Time Contest link at the top of the page to enter for your chance to win a wonderful prize!

OK, because so many people had so much fun last winter predicting the first snowfall (Which was won by Mary on December 12)… we’re going to run another contest.

When will the Alberniweather Thermometer hit 30.0C?

Here are the rules:

#1: You must pick a date, hour, and minute (eg. July 3 12:45).

#2: Closest time wins.

#3: You must enter your guess in the comments section of this post.

#4: You can only pick once, so choose carefully.

#5: I reserve the right to add to these rules since I probably missed something. :)

#6: There will be a prize to the winner… to be announced at the time (because it’s more fun when you don’t know!)

#7: If my wife (Theresa) wins she will get a prize as will the next closest contestant. (She’s still a little bitter at having guessed correctly in December and never got that new snow shovel! This time she’ll probably get a prize whether she wins or not! :D )

#8: If we don’t reach 30C by September 21, then no one wins… well, except Mother Nature, she can be a cruel lady!

#9: Guesses must be submitted by Midnight, 0:00PDT the day of your guess. (ie. No guesses on the day of)
……….

So that’s it. Start picking! As your guesses start to come in I will put them on a Google Calendar so that you can see them all.

It is worth noting that generally, the hottest time of the day on my station is somewhere between 3 and 5.. that said, on hot days it climb very fast starting around 10AM.

Good Luck!

UPDATE: The Calendar is up and we have our first guess, thanks Kelly!

UPDATE 2: Wow, thanks everyone for submitting your guesses! For those who haven’t yet, remember you don’t have to pick different days only different times. So if someone guess July 1, 3:45PM then pick July 1 3:46 and you might just win! (Can you tell I watched The Price Is Right growing up? Except in this contest… closest time wins! Over or Under. :) )

The answer probably depends on:

a) How tough (or crazy) you are.

b) How long this warm streak continues.

Generally, we need at least a week of highs in the 20s to really warm up the lake. It’s not unheard of that people would be swimming quite comfortably in Sproat for May Long weekend. This years May Long was a little earlier than normal, so anyone who decided to go for a swim probably regretted it. (And my deepest regrets to the wife and family of the man who perished on Taylor Arm last weekend).

We also haven’t seen the last of the spring melt. Still lots of snow up in the hills, so your best bet is to stick where it’s nice and shallow so the days sun can warm the water. Swim out any distance, and you’ll probably have some cold feet!

We’re looking at 4 or 5 days of very nice warm, even hot, weather. Hope everyone can get out and enjoy it.

After a bit of a bummer of an end to the May Long Weekend it looks like at this the next few days should bring us some nice warm weather. Up into the 20s again with very little chance of precipitation.

We managed to finally get our garden squared away, it’s all tilled and mostly planted. Too much procastination this spring but luckily we had some potatoes and lettuce that came up on their own out of last years dregs without us needing to lift a finger so that was a nice little surprise. Next it will be time to plant the grape vine and maybe find a home for another fruit tree.

Gardening season means watering season. I will have a look at the river forecast center report on water resources for the summer later this week but we all know that water is becoming a lot more precious in the summer months around here. And if you live in Port Alberni, you pay for every drop as well.

We’ve done a few things to limit our water use that have been successful.

1. - Two Rain Barrels from Home Hardware, we hand water as much as we can. They are 40 gallons, you’d be surprised how fast they deplete once you start using them, but on the other side, it only takes about 5-10mm of rainfall to completely fill them.
2. - We were passed a box full of “RainBird” watering system components. I’ve installed pipes that will service our main garden, our biggest flower garden, and our front yard gardens. These systems are very easy to install and I managed to install most of it in only about 2 or 3 days of work. They’re really nice because you can both be sure what you want watered has water, and you only water what you want. We used about 15% less water last year and I credit it mainly to the watering system. I have yet to combine it with a water timer, but that will be the next thing… then it will be fully automated and we’ll be able to water in the early morning hours when there is the least amount of evapotranspiration.
3. - We don’t water our lawn. Aside from any residual it might get from the gardens, we never water our lawn. Generally the backyard doesn’t suffer too much, but the front yard does dry up. Oh well.

The Long Weekend is here! Unfortunately, it’s not looking like the hottest of starts to the camping season across Canada, but at least it’s not supposed to rain…. until Monday. :) You might want to bring more long sleeve shirts than bikinis, but Saturday and Sunday will certainly be more than good enough to have enjoy the outdoors

I hope that wherever people end up this weekend that you have a great time. Pack in what you pack out (and try to take stuff others were too lazy to leave behind too!).

I’ll be having a BBQ on Sunday I think… and doing as much gardening as I can muster. That will be my big May Long Weekend goal.

Have Fun!

UPDATE: They’ve changed the forecast for Monday! Hooray! Looks like a fine weekend is ahead! Should be dry today and warm by afternoon, then Sunday and Monday it will get up to 23C!

The only thing to watch out for will probably be a cool night tonight, but I’m sure it was probably pretty cool last night for campers.

Be safe, there has already been a tragedy out Taylor Arm with a man drowning while apparently fishing with his wife.