That rain shower we had this morning was an August rarity.
This has been one of the warmest, driest Augusts Prince George has ever had and while the hot weather we’ve been having made it uncomfortable at times to be indoors in places without air conditioning, it’s been a blessing for anyone taking part in outdoor events. There were no rain delays at the Canadian Native Fastball Championships on the B.C. Day long weekend, the B.C. Northern Exhibition had nothing but sunshine and warm temperatures and campers, hikers and lake enthusiasts in the region have had near-perfect weather conditions.
But the weather patten appears to be changing as the meteorological autumn approaches with the start of September next Thursday. We’re still in store for summer-like weather, but it won’t be quite as hot and dry as it has been.
There’s still a risk of thunderstorms until about 5 p.m. this afternoon with today’s high expected to hit 24 C, but sunny skies are expected to return Saturday morning with the high reaching 19 C, close to average high on 20.4 C for Aug. 27. More rain is predicted for a cloudy Sunday but not until later in the day, and that shower activity is expected to continue with periods of rain on Monday.
The predicted high for Sunday is 17 C, warming to 21 C on Monday. Environment Canada anticipates more heat in store for Prince George later next week with highs of 24 C on Tuesday and 28 C on Wednesday. There’s a 40 per cent chance of showers on Thursday with a seasonable high of 21 C.
Lows will range from 8 C early Saturday morning to 11 or 12 C the following five days – good news for gardeners hoping to see those flower blooms continuing.
Twenty-six days into August, there has been measurable precipitation on just nine of those days and only once did we have more than 10 millimetres of rain. That happened Aug. 13 when heavy thundershowers dumped 11.5 mm at the Prince George Airport weather station.
Not including Friday’s showers, we’ve had just 28.8 mm of rain in August. That’s equivalent to 1.3 inches.
The average high this month has been 25.6 C and the average low has been 9 C, for an average mean temperature of 17.3 C.
The warmest day so far was Aug 12th when the mercury climbed to 31.3 C. We also reached 30.3 C on Aug. 10, the day after the city recorded a low of 2.2 C, the coldest it’s been this month. Prince George went past the 30 C mark on Wednesday (31.0 C) and came close on Aug. 18 (29.5 C). We’ve had 10 days warmer than 27 C.
