After a brief hiatus, summer is back with a vengeance this weekend.
Environment Canada is forecasting a mini-heatwave on Saturday and Sunday before it cools down early next week.
Meteorologist Carmen Hartt says we’ll see a rapid buildup.
“We’ve got a ridge of high pressure building this weekend. Saturday we’ll see the heat building. Sunday looks to be the hottest day for most areas with temperatures reaching the high 20s, maybe even hitting 30 somewhere.”
As hot as it’s going to be, you likely won’t see any records on Sunday. Campbell River’s high mark for Aug. 16th is 35.6 C from 1981, while Courtenay was a sizzling 32.2 C during the heatwave of 1967.
Powell River’s record for Aug. 16th was also set in ’67, when it got up to 32.8 C.
Port Hardy doesn’t have as far to go but it’ll probably fall a couple degrees short. It’s record for the day is 25.4 C set in 1997.
By Monday, the pattern is expected to change, with a chance of showers and possibly some thunderstorms in the longer-range forecast.
We could use some rain.
Hartt said we’re coming off an extraordinarily dry July that saw Comox and Campbell River get just 20 percent of their normal amount of rainfall for the month.
Places like Powell River and Port Hardy are also coming off a drier-than-usual July.
August is following suit. As we approach the mid-way point of the month, we’ve seen roughly 10 to 20 millimetres of rain.
“Normals for the month are from 30 to 70 millimetres, so we’ll have to see how the month turns out, but we’ve got a dry stretch ahead but then probably more precipitation towards the end of the month, so we might end up a little bit more even for August in some places,” Hartt said.
