September 1! Meteorological Fall begins. Heat continues. Brief shower Wednesday. Website updates. COVID 19 BC Numbers.

Welcome back!

I took the month of August off from blogging here so I could concentrate on the backend of the website. I’ve upgraded most of the systems feeding data to the website as well as the website itself. I am still waiting on some new code from the software developers to fix some issues with the data view. The Air quality reading is currently offline in the data view but is updating in the Almanac view. It should be all back up this week.

Here are some of the updates I’ve made to the webpage that you might notice:

  • Humidex value and graphs added to the Almanac
  • Heat Index graph now combined with Temperature and Dewpoint
  • StormRain value (a rain total that keeps rising until there is a 3hr break in rainfall) added to the Almanac.
  • Cloud base value added to the Almanac.
  • The units for the air quality / PM2.5 readings are fixed in the Almanac.
  • Humidex added to the Mini/Mobile View.

Also, the webcam is now only on between sunrise and sunset and the computer system has been updated which has solved the crashing problem which was causing data interruptions to the website.

September 1 – First Day of Meteorological Fall!

Can you believe the summer is already coming to an end? For Meteorological data, it has ended as we have now entered the September-October-November period of fall.

The astronomical season doesn’t switch to fall until quite late this year: September 22 at 6:31AM PDT. I’ll post up the monthly summaries from the summer months soon. It was not a particularly Hot summer, but it wasn’t too bad!

Sunny and Warm weather continues – except Wednesday morning drizzle.

This week will remain very sunny and dry with only a little bit of fog in the mornings and evenings as we warm up and cool down.

The only hint of moisture in the next week is on Wednesday morning in the 8-11AM period. It is coming down from the northeast and so is focused mainly nearly Buckley Bay and Hornby and Denman Islands.

It looks like drizzle or a very brief shower at best.

Beyond that it is completely dry as far as the forecast can see but temperatures are not too extreme. Nothing over 30°C is expected until Sunday or Monday of the Long Weekend.

Looks like the heat might rise next week until the 30-35°C range. We’ll keep an eye on it.

COVID19 BC and Island numbers

I have been tracking and tweeting the daily COVID19 numbers since March (@chrisalecanada) but I thought it would be good to have them in a more permanent place. So I am going to start posting them here as well.

You will mainly see the graph below and associated numbers as well as updates from the Island Health region when available (they seem to have detailed regional breakdowns every couple weeks now).

August 31 COVID19 BC numbers

The current trend is not good. We are nearing double the number of active cases we had in the spring and hospitalization and ICU numbers are now climbing back to June and May levels respectively.

With the school year starting and flu season only a month or two away, this is a deeply concerning trend. Try to keep your bubbles as small as they can. Wear masks. And keep your distance.

Hopefully once travel season ends and folks go back to work, the rise in cases will be easier to halt.

Take care and see you again soon!

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