I’m starting to wish Fall would come just so we could get some more interesting weather. If someone could order up a thunderstorm or something (without causing a forest fire!) that would be great!

How is everyones garden doing? Ours has been very happy! We harvested a whole bunch of potatoes a few weeks back. We just picked a mess of cucumbers and we’re currently inundated with tomatoes. Next up, I hope, if this weather holds, will be the corn! We got it planted a few weeks late so cobs are only just starting form. Just need a few more weeks of summery weather to get some fresh corn! YUM!

Our lettuce and kale and spinach bolted a while back. Did you know that Kale is one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat!?

We’ll be getting this nice little rest today from the dryness. After today though, it’s back to the sunshine and warm temperatures. We should get up into the mid to upper 20s for the rest of the week with a slight chance of breaking 30.

I don’t know how many of you followed Hurricane Bills path last weekend, but I did. There was apparently a buoy near Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia that went right through the Eye of Bill and recorded regular waves of 50ft with extreme waves up to 80ft! Yikes.

There is a lot more activity in the Pacific this year as far as Hurricanes go than there is in the Atlantic. If you’re interested in checking them out. You can go to the National Hurricane center in the US for the East Pacific out to Hawaii. Once they get into the Central and Western Pacific you need to go to US Navys Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

The Central Pacific storms are the most interesting for us as they are the ones most likely (though not very) of recurving back to hit us as an Extra Tropical storm. (As the remants of Bill are doing now to the UK).

Typhoon 11W “Vamco” is currently disintegrating from a strong Typhoon into an Extra Tropical (ET) storm. It’s remnants are headed to the Bering Sea where they are supposed to reform a little and then come and give us some clouds and possible rain next week.

While yesterday, August 19, wasn’t an alltime record breaker, that goes to August 19, 1908 at 37.8C out Beaver Creek, we did come very close to a “modern” day (post 1950) record.

The highest temperature recorded after 1950 by other stations around the Valley is 34.4 at McCoy Lake in 1961 and Robertson Creek at 34.0 in 2004.

We got up to 33.0 at the Airport. The record to beat for the Airport station was 33.4, August 19, 2004.

……
In more broad warm-weather news. It might come as a shock to your friends or relatives back East, but July 2009 was, according to the NOAA and NASA, the 5th or 2nd warmest July respectively.

It will come as no surprise to us, as we had 17 of 31 days with highs over 28C including, of course, the incredible heat wave we had at the end of the month. The average maximum temperature is closer to 25C.

The overall average temperature for the month at my station was 20.3C, at the Airport it was 20.2C, the “Normal” is 17.9C.

The “Normal” amount of days over 30C? Seven. I had ten, the airport had thirteen!

Over 35C… one is normal, I had three and the Airport, FIVE!

Here’s what the rest of the world looked like. We’re moving into an El Nino, so we will likely see more of the same… remember, global warming/climate change doesn’t negate variability, what it forsees is that variability turning into, in some cases, higher lows, and higher highs. Which is exactly what we’re getting.

Looks like we’re set up for some nice weather again starting today and warming up into Monday and Tuesday next week. Funny you know, if it was any other summer we’d be looking at those 30 and 31C temperatures and going WOW it’s going to be HOT. But not this summer. :) My kids will appreciate the time in the backyard with the pool or at the lake. Unfortunately for me, I’ll be at work again in Nanaimo. Boo. Un-airconditioned sweat box that will be my office. Yippee! :)

I had to drive to Whiskey Creek yesterday. There were some pretty good cloudbursts going on and I forgot how fun that first rainfall is on the highway for driving. It was so slick my wife nearly did a doughnut around some of the corners!

Anyway, back to the heat… and here’s something I’ve been pondering. With El Nino the Pacific has been very active in terms of Hurricanes in the East (TS Felicia hit Hawaii yesterday) and terrible Typhoons to the West in Asia. One wonders if we might get one of those Typhoons curling back our way this fall (they often brush by Japan and go up into the Bering Strait) and winter like we did in 2006. Keep your eye on those North Pacific charts.

Whether we get more, is up for debate. It looks like the front and stream coming off the Pacific has gone through and is affecting the Seattle area more than us. We’ll probably get some more rain… maybe… before we go back to sun. I heard on the Seattle news last night that the last time Seattle had significant rainfall was May 19th. Which jives pretty well with us as well. They say it was the driest stretch in 60 years for them, I haven’t heard any similar pronouncements from Environment Canada, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we set similar marks.