If you don't mind cloudy gray skies and a good chance of rain showers, you're going to like the Canada Day long weekend weather forecast.
The next three days will produce unsettled weather and cooler-than-normal temperatures - not good news for sun-worshippers but there is hope on the longterm horizon. Warmer and sunnier weather is expected late next week.
"What we're dealing with is a zonal flow along the latitude lines and it just means we're having the influence of the Pacific Ocean," said Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan, from his office in Victoria.
"At this time of year that doesn't necessarily mean big storms but it does mean intermittent rain here and there and these weaker pulses coming in from the Pacific."
Today's high temperature is expected to reach 17 C, about four degrees below normal for this time of year, with a low of 8 C and a 60 per cent chance of showers, The forecast high for Sunday, Canada Day, is 16 C with a low of 6 C, while Monday's high will also be 16 C with a forecast low of 4 C. There's a 40 per cent chance of rain both days.
That's a far cry from last year when the mercury climbed to 26.2 C on Canada Day in Prince George with no rain. Next week it will start to feel more like summer, with predicted highs of 21 C Tuesday, 19 C Wednesday and 22 C on Thursday.
"By next weekend or even Thursday and Friday we should start to see near-normal, if not a couple degrees above normal temperatures," said Castellan. "The first 12 days of June were cooler than normal and a bit wetter than normal, followed by that incredible week of heatwave, and then we went right back to normal or just below temperature of precip values."
The first 28 days of June had a mean temperature of 13.3 C, about a half of a degree below the 13.8 C normal for the city. The heat arrived with a vengeance and for three days, from June 18-20 the highs for Prince George reached 30 C or more, with five straight rain-free days.
A monthly forecast was issued this week and most of province is in the same boat, with rainy weather expected the first week of July.
"The probabilities are high we'll have above-average precipitation for most of B.C. for the next week," Castellan said.
"Usually by the end of June and early July we start to set up more of a summer pattern and that influence from the Pacific and the weaker storms are usually few and far between and it's cooler than normal."
Despite the cool start to summer, the long-range model still calls for a hotter and drier summer for the Prince George region.
"If I look at the four-week trend for temperature, you have about a 70 to 80 percent chance of being above normal and that includes all the way through to the 30th of July," said Castellan.
"Those next four weeks most of the province will have a drier trend, so summer is on the way."
