Possibly record rain hits Tofino. Labour Day looks OK. Campfire ban may be lifted soon.

It may have been a record setting day on Tuesday in Tofino.  Port Alberni only had a little bit of rain but the West Coast got hammered  with 60mm falling at Ucluelet Secondary School and over 100mm falling at Wickinninish Community School in Tofino!

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Environment Canada has not published data from their Tofino (A) station for yesterday yet but that station goes back 75 years to when the Airport was built in WWII.  The record rainfall for August 30th is 62 mm in 1961. So if a similar amount of rain fell at the Tofino Airport, then it seems likely that record will be broken.

Looking ahead, the rain will continue on the West Coast and South Island but Port Alberni will miss a large part of it. There is also a slight chance of some thunderstorm activity today through Friday.

Here is what the models show for the coming days:

Rain colour scale with millimetres (top) and centi-inches (bottom)
Rain colour scale with millimetres (top) and centi-inches (bottom)

 

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Wednesday we see a band of strong rain across the South Island Mill Bay and Cowichan area.
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24hr accumulation between Wednesday 5AM and Thursday 5AM shows most rain concentrated on West and South Island but Alberni Valley has equal amount.
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Thursday (5AM-5AMFri) 24hr total has major rain for South end of Island but the Alberni Valley and West Coast north of Port Renfrew are spared.
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Friday 24hr total shows some rain returning to Port Alberni but most again staying on the South Island.
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Here is the 3 day total from Friday 5AM to Monday 5AM. Only a marginal amount of precipitation for that Long Weekend stretch so in all we should be mostly dry for Salmon Derby, but cool. Good fishing weather though there may be some windy conditions on the exposed coasts and in the Inlet.



Campfire Ban likely to be lifted soon but wait for confirmation.

The Fire ban was lifted for the Coast on Tuesday *except* the south area of Vancouver Island including Port Alberni as you can see below.

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Given the significant rainfall expected in the next 3 days, I would expect that the campfire ban will be completely lifted on Friday but we’ll have to wait to see if that actually happens.

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2 thoughts on “Possibly record rain hits Tofino. Labour Day looks OK. Campfire ban may be lifted soon.

  1. Hi Chris- I’d like to let you know how much I appreciate the amazing amount of time and effort you put into providing this really wonderful service- this is my daily go- to site for local and very comprehensive weather info- thanks so much!
    R. Lancaster

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