Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan has crunched the numbers and he says Prince George has just experienced its second-driest summer ever.
Just 83.6 millimetres of precipitation was recorded in the city over the past three months, which is just 47.4 per cent of the average 176.7 mm. The only drier summer was in 2014 when the city had just 68 mm of moisture. At the other end of the scale, 1954 was the wettest at 254 mm.
In June-July-August, the mean temperature (average high and low combined) in P.G. was 15.7 C, which makes it the 11th warmest summer on record.
Smithers, Dease Lake, Chetwynd and Fort Nelson and the Yukon Territory had their warmest summers ever.
“When you look at the temperature curve for Prince George, what’s striking is the anomaly was strongest earlier in the season,” said Castellan. “In mid-June and late-June and again in early-July those were strong multi-day events where you were significantly above seasonal.”
Although the thermometer at Prince George Airport rose above 20 C for 25 of the 31 days last month, the city averaged 16.1 C in August, slightly above the average 15 C.
August precipitation was significantly lower than normal with just 22.5 mm recorded, 43.6 per cent of the average 51.5 mm for the month.
No daily high records were broken in August but we hit 30 C or warmer on three of those days (Aug. 6, Aug. 13 and Aug. 28). On average, we usually break the 30 C barrier in August just once.
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