A fairly typical July

This past July turned out to be pretty typical in Victoria.

The mean temperature for the month was 16.1 degrees, which is right on the 30-year average.  If you go to 2 decimal points, the mean temperature was 16.10 versus the average of 16.07, so we did continue our streak of above average temperatures, albeit by a very small margin!  Since the beginning of 2014, 28 of the past 31 months have been warmer than the long term average.

I was a little surprised when I saw the stats for July, because it seemed to me like it was a little cooler than normal.  That may be because, while the mean temperature was bang on normal, the average daily high temperature was a little below normal (20.1 versus 20.4) while the average daily low temperature was slightly above normal (12.1 versus 11.7).  In addition, we didn't get any really hot weather during July, at least at Victoria Gonzales.  The warmest temperature this month at Gonzales was 23.1 degrees on July 21.  On average, the warmest temperature during July is usually around 28 degrees.  Victoria Airport also saw close to average temperatures in July, although the highest temperature for the month was a warmer 27.0 degrees, also on July 21.

The chart below compares the daily high and low temperatures with the averages for July.  You can see that the temperatures stayed very close to average throughout the month, with no big swings above or below the averages.

Daily Max and Min temperatures, July 2016

July was drier than average, with 8.0 mm of rain at Victoria Gonzales compared with the normal of 12.6 mm.  However, that's not an unusually low amount for Victoria -  there's been less than 8 mm of rain during more than 4 in 10 July's over the past 100 years.  There were five days with measurable precipitation in July, which is pretty typical for Victoria.  The wettest day was July 7th, with 2.8 mm of rain.

As is typical, Victoria Gonzales received less rain in July than other locations in the region.  Compared with 8 mm at Gonzales, the Victoria Airport received 13.6 mm.  In Vancouver, there was 32.8 mm at the Airport and 59.2 mm downtown at the Harbour.  The Seattle Airport received 18.3 mm.  In Nanaimo, there was 34.0 mm of rain

The chart below compares daily and cumulative rainfall in July 2016 with the average cumulative rainfall for July.  While we ended up the month with a little less rain than average, it was actually quite typical.

Daily and Cumulative Rainfall, July 2016