Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know, there will be only intermittent updates to the weather values today so keep an eye on the “Last Updated” line just under the temperature and other stats to make sure you know if the values shown are current or not.

I’m making some updates to the weather server and rearranging some hardware downstairs. Everything should be back to updating normally later today or tomorrow.

I think we can all figure out what the weather’s going to be like today, tomorrow, and well into next week. Beautiful! :) A little fog in the morning maybe, but warm and sunny (and dry) in the day time. Enjoy!

In the meantime, I try not to do too much politicking here… but if you’ve been following the Coal debate lately, you might already know I’m trying to put together a petition to force the project away from using 100 trucks a day. If you’re interested in that, you can go to www.norailnocoal.ca.

I haven’t posted anything lately because… well.. the weather hasn’t changed!

I don’t know about you folks but the past week has been nearly perfect temperatures. This next few days the temps will rise a little. Tomorrow it will reach 32C, which for me is getting a little too hot. But really, it’s hard to complain about the weather, and that’s the way it should be!

The only caveat to that of course is the risk of Forest Fires. Once again, please, be careful out there. The bush is extremely dry. We’ve seen this in action today with the Steam train sparking a small fire for the 2nd time in a week. Luckily, both caught and contained quickly.

Once again, the fire danger rating for the province is at the bottom. You can see most of Vancouver Island is now under Extreme Rating, as is much of the Central Interior. The Southern Interior is headed in that direction as well but will hopefully get a little relief coming over the rockies now and again.

I had a look at the long range forecast and this weather is slated to stick with us for another could weeks it looks like. By the 2nd week of August the European model has us finally getting a bit of moisture from the Pacific. But we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out.

Here’s the Precipitation map for the Province… obviously, very very very little precipitation happening… lets hope the Interior especially doesn’t experience too much lightning activity.

Update: I must have jinxed us… now the forecast for tomorrow gives a chance for thundershower. I’m sure all the fire folks are going to be on highest alert because there will be no significant rainfall to go with it.

Hope for the best.

Here’s the Fire Rating:

This sunny weather should continue for at least another week or maybe even two. We have a wonderful forecast just below 30 degrees. Everyone I’ve talked to lately agrees, these past days have really been perfect, not too hot, but plenty warm to do whatever you want outside and warm up the lake as well.

See? And you all thought the summer was a right off after June. ;)

Speaking of June, it won’t make you feel any better, but it’s worth noting that again, for the 4th straight month, the world set a new record for average temperature. Sea temperatures are starting to fall thanks to La Nina starting up, but they were still warm enough and land temperatures were the warmest ever. The lower atmosphere was also the 2nd warmest on record.

Here’s the anomaly (departure from “normal”) map for June:

Perhaps the most stunning thing about June was the heat waves across many parts of Asia and the Middle East. 6 countries set all time record highs, most over a rather unbelievable 50C.

Unfortunately, if you’ve seen the news you’ll know that there is still an unprecedented heatwave happening in Eastern Europe, especially Russia.

And finally, if you’ve come back to the site over the past few days you might have noticed the change in our fire danger ratings. We’ve gone from having a good portion of South Eastern BC in Moderate or even Low fire danger, but now only the Peace region remains in that rating, the entire rest of the Province marches onward towards high and extreme ratings.

After another week of this kind of weather you can probably expect a campfire ban to go into effect across most of the province.

With us heading officially into “heat wave” territory by Sunday (5 days with temps 5 degrees above normal) the fire risk will be increasing sharply.

So just a reminder for anyone out there to please, keep your campfires small and have lots of water on hand to douse it when you’re done.

According to the Ministry of Forests Map below, the current Fire Rating is High for most of Vancouver Island. There is also a pocket of Extreme here in the Alberni Valley and near Duncan.

High: Fire hazard is serious. Extreme caution must be used in any forest activities. Burning permits and industrial activities may be restricted.

Extreme: Extremely high fire hazard. General forest activities may be restricted, including burning permits, industrial activities and campfires.

Our Humidity has also been quite low, around 25%. Here is the full “Fire Weather” website.

Finally, you can see the official fire ratings here. Our region is under “Beaver Creek”. (the fire base is near the Airport). According to that table, it only took 3 days for the fire rating to go from Moderate to Extreme.

By Sunday, according to their forecast, it looks like the majority of the Province will be in Extreme fire conditions.

Yesterday it heated up, fast. So at 12:30PM when the temperate passed 30C at alberniweather.ca, Natalie became the winner of the Alberniweather Summer Contest.

Congratulations Natalie!

Your prize is a fabulous pair of Super Soakers. There’s nothing like a good old fashioned water fight to beat the heat in the summertime.

You can claim your prize by emailing me (chrisale@gmail.com) or give me a call at 250-723-0889 and we’ll arrange a pick up at Alberniweather HQ. :)

Congratulations Natalie. And to all, thank you for playing, it’s always lots of fun.

Enjoy the weather the next week or so… it’s going to be Beeeeeautiful!