The drought persisted through September in Chilliwack and across B.C. but there were no temperature records broken.
It was beneath sunny, azure skies, on Sept. 2, that temperatures peaked at 30.5C with a relative humidity of 29 per cent. That turned out to be the warmest day of the month, which was almost eight degrees above normal, according to Roger Pannett, Chilliwack’s volunteer weather observer for Environment Canada.
With the passage of a cold front, a welcome rainfall arrived on Sept. 3 and saw six millimetres in total recorded.
“For the next two weeks a ridge of high pressure produced a continuation of the Drought Level 5 conditions with a return to dry, sunny, warm weather,” Pannett said in his monthly report.
After the end of the summer, on Sept. 23, an upper-level low-pressure trough produced a few days of cool, rainy weather with snow in the alpine.
On Sept. 30 the low for the month was 6.8C, a smidge below normal, beneath a full Harvest moon.
There were two hot days with temperatures going above 30C, but no temperature records broken.
The patterns make it clear there’s been an ongoing warming trend, but not like September 2022 which was the hottest and the driest on record.
RELATED: September 2022 hottest, driest on record in Chilliwack
“With mean temperatures for the month at 17.21C, 1.61C above normal (standard deviation + or – 1.3C ) it was the eighth consecutive September with above normal temperatures, a trend never previously observed since Chilliwack records commenced in 1879.”
Only September 2015 had below normal temperatures in the past 15 years.
“Thankfully with the Coastal Fire Centre campfire ban, and prohibitions in effect until Sept. 27, the Chilliwack region remained wildfire health hazardous smoke free.”
For the 15th consecutive month September precipitation was below normal, 46.06 per cent below normal in fact.
Chilliwack 2023 precipitation total to date is 576.2 mm on 102 days, compared to the 30-year average of 1,160.5 mm on 117 days.
