November 2020 Summary – A Wet and Stormy Month, just like normal.

A very rainy, but not quite record rainy, month.

The Alberniweather and Alberni Valley Climate Summary for November 2020


(Monthly!? Darn typos! 🙂 )
November has come and gone and it was a memorable one. It might have seemed like a lot of rain and wind, but we often forget that November is our wettest month and among the windiest. Check out the historical chart from the Environment Canada stations at Robertson Creek and Somass River (“A”).

This November delivered.

Unfortunately the Airport missed a couple days at the end of the month but luckily it didn’t impact the numbers much.

We started off the month with a bang with a big storm on November 4th that sent a 77kph gust into my station atop 6th Avenue hill. It made my house shake and was the strongest gust of the year!

The monthly wind chart
The wind chart for the year

We then dove into a cold spell that produced two new low temperature records at the Airport on November 8 and 9. Neither one came close to an all time record which were beyond -7 ºC.

We got a bunch more rain events that sent us along to record 21 days of rain, which is exactly normal, for the month!

We got another big wind event on the 17th that produced the Airport’s largest wind gust for quite some time 65kph. Unfortunately Environment Canada inexplicably does not track extreme wind gusts at the Airport. They did at Somass River “A”, but that is a very different locale and not comparable to the new Airport or really any other station for wind.

Overall in the City we saw a very average month in terms of rainfall total. The Airport, even accounting for the 2 missed reporting days, had far BELOW normal rain totals.

The unexpected occurrence of the month? We set a high temperature record on the last day!

Story of the Month

It’s gotta be those windstorms!

It really pushed my little greenhouse around!

https://twitter.com/alberniweather/status/1325477261919707136

It’s still crooked in yet another direction from the last big blow a few days ago!

Happy December!! Go enter in the contest, it might snow one day!

Oh, one last thing, if you were trying to donate through the link in this morning’s email message, the link was broken. This one works! Thank you so much!


Daily and All Time Records Set

Set at the Airport* since 1994 and compared to other stations** for “All Time” since 1900.


2 new low temperatures and one high temperature record set at the Airport. Neither came close to all time highs.

  • Nov 8 low temp -2.7º C: #1 is -7.8º C at Beaver Creek in 1945.
  • Nov 9 low temp -2.5º C: #1 is -7.2º C at Beaver Creek in 1911.
  • Nov 30 high temp 10.3º C: #1 is 15.0º C at Port Alberni in 1941.

City Station Comparisons

Mean Min, Mean, and Mean Max Temperature, 
Total Precipitation and Highest Wind



City and Airport
Compared to Normal


Differences from Normal (1971-2000) in the City

+1.1 °C, +0.5 ºC, +0.9 ºC-4.9 mm (98.4%)

This Month’s Average City Values

Differences from Normal (1981-2010) at the Airport

+1.1° C, +0.7º C, +0.3º C -71.5 mm (79.8%)

This Month’s Average Airport Values

Official Days of Precipitation at Airport*

Normal DaysDays This Month* (Missing 25th and 26th)
>= 0.2 mm: 21.8 :  21 (other stations reported 2 extra days)
>= 5 mm:  13.7 : 16 (other stations reported 1 extra day)
>= 10 mm: 11.0 : 11
>= 25 mm: 5.2 : 3


* May have used backup Environment Canada Data source at WeatherStats.ca or Missing Data (January 2020)

**^^ Missing Data from Airport, Alberniweather broke existing Airport record temperature. Temperature at Alberniweather will be different. Usually Alberniweather underestimates temperatures in summer compared to Airport.

** Short Term means since 1995 at the new AVRA Airport.  Airport Records are compared to the 30+ year weather stations of record since 1900 (1895 for rain) at Beaver Creek, Port Alberni "City" and Robertson Creek.  Note that records pre 1950 may be more likely to over-estimate high temperatures.

***Rain gauge faulty. ****Alberni Elementary station offline.

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