Hey! Great news from the world of local weather information!

The folks at UVic who run the “Schoolnet” islandweather.ca websites (and sub-sites, nanaimoweather.ca and victoriaweather.ca) have just brought four new stations online! There are now weather stations feeding into the network (along with this one of course) from Alberni Elementary School, Maquinna Elementary School, Wikkaninnish Community School in Tofino, and Ucluelet High School in Ucluelet. There was also a station recently added at Bamfield Marine Station.

So what does that all mean? Well for Port Alberni it means that when you go to the maps at islandweather.ca or nanaimoweather.ca you’re going to see a little more refined detail in our little area of Vancouver Island. This is a great thing. Anyone who has lived in Port Alberni for more than a few years will already know that there are lots of little micro climates, and between these 2 stations and myself, we should provide an interesting look.

My predication is that you’ll see Alberni Elementary to be the hottest, and wettest in town… I will have the strongest gusts of wind and Maquinna will be nearly windless and likely the coolest.

As for the west coast stations, this addition will really make a huge difference for current, easy, information out on the West Coast.

In all, it’s great stuff. I’ve encouraged them to talk to the Sproat Lake, Cherry Creek and Beaver Creek FDs to try to get weather stations on those facilities as well.. then we’d have really excellent coverage of the Valley!

I’ll mark this post “Hot”, but really it’s not going to be *that* hot. :) Not nearly summer contest winning hot. Sorry Daniel, Tamara and Chris G. but it doesnt look like we’re going to have 30 degree heat just yet.

That said, everyday this week is slated to be over 20C! That’s definitely a start. I’m not going to tell you what the week after that is looking like. Darn models, you can never trust them that far out anyway!

Hope the Fathers out there have a happy Fathers Day! I will be on the Fathers Day train today. My son has been wanting to go on the train so bad lately I think he might explode!

Finally. Even though we had a relatively normal, even cool, May.. around the globe, May 2010 set tied for the warmest May on record. Which was the third consecutive month that the world set new monthly records for warmth. This was due to the lingering effects of El Nino combining with abnormally warm weather in Eastern Europe and Russia. Our little part of the world really was one of only a few that wasn’t on the warm end of things.

El Nino has collapsed, so be prepared for a La Nina this winter! But lets not get too far ahead of ourselves. First… lets get some serious summer going! :)