“Summer is not canceled by any means across the South Coast. We just have to be a but more patient this go around,” says Tyler Hamilton of The Weather Network.
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The start of Vancouver’s summer of 2022 is shaping up to be a lot different to 2021 — that began with the deaths of more than 600 people caught unawares by a record high-temperature heat dome and the total destruction of the Village of Lytton from fire.
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According to Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton, the cool and unsettled pattern that dominated during spring will continue into the beginning of summer, which starts officially on Tuesday.
He said an unusual strengthening of the La Niña weather pattern that causes unseasonal cold waters off the coast of South America is leading to cooler air and waters off BC that is keeping temperatures down.
The forecast for the rest of this week is for cloudy and cool days, leading to sunnier and slightly warmer days by week’s end. On Friday, it’s forecast to be sunny in Vancouver and 22 C.
Hamilton said that the unseasonal cool weather will give way to warmer more seasonal temperatures after the coming weekend.
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“That will bring the final week of June to seasonal or above seasonal temperatures with areas away from the Strait of Georgia in the mid or upper 20s,” he said. “That will be the first taste of summer.”
Vancouver’s first taste of summer in 2021 was a brutal pill to swallow. It started June 21 when record temperatures were set across the province that did not abate. On June 24, weather forecasters warned of a highly unusual high pressure system that was set to slow down atop the south coast of BC and form a heat dome.
Within a week, as temperature records were broken throughout the region, more than 600 people had died from the heat — almost all indoors and most over the age of 70 with pre-existing medical conditions. The tragedy led to a BC Coroner’s review that found the provincial government’s response to the crisis was lacking.
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On June 30, the day after the Village of Lytton reported the hottest temperature ever in Canada (49.6 C), the town burned to the ground and remains that way. Two people died.
Hamilton said it was extremely unlikely that BC will see another heat dome event of similar intensity this year.
“We are not expecting temperatures to push into the 40s in the south coast like the likely devastating heat dome last season,” he said, adding there still would be days in the BC Interior this summer that will be higher than 40 C.
The continuation of cool weather this week is good for the spring flooding situation because the unusually large snow pack (it’s about 200 per cent of normal across BC) will melt slowly. However, Hamilton warned that a sudden rise in temperatures could trigger a quick melt that would lead to flooding trouble.
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He said the wildfire season was not expected to be as bad as it was in 2021, that the third worst on record based on the amount of land burned.
“Summer is not canceled by any means across the south coast,” Hamilton said. “We just have to be a but more patient this go around.”
According to the BC River Forecast Center there are no flood warnings in place.
There are flood watches in place in the Thompson River and Liard basin and high-streamflow advisories in the East and West Kootenay region.
According to the BC Wildfire Service there are no wildfires of note.
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