Sunday, September 18, 2022

Summer 2022 was warmer and slightly wetter than normal

 Meteorological summer consists of June, July, and August.  Summer 2022 started out wetter than normal, with close to normal temperatures in June and July. This was followed by a much warmer and drier than normal August.  Overall, the summer was warmer and about 10% wetter than normal this year in Victoria.  

The mean temperature this past summer at Victoria Gonzales was 16.3 degrees, which is 0.5 degrees above the 30-year average.  Summer 2022 was tied for the 8th warmest in Victoria since record-keeping began at Gonzales Observatory in 1914.  While June and July were just slightly above normal, August was the warmest on record in Victoria: 1.3 degrees above normal.  

The average daily high temperature this summer was 20.5 C (versus the normal of 20.0 C) while the average daily minimum was 12.0 C (normal 11.5 C).   

The chart below shows the daily maximum and minimum temperatures at Victoria Gonzales during summer 2022, compared with the 30-year averages.  The warmest temperature of the summer was 30.9 C on June 26th.  Victoria had one other day above 30 C, when it hit 30.2 C on August 30.  In between, there were several short mini-heatwaves, when the temperature rose above 25 C.  Victoria had 15 days with temperatures exceeding 25 C this summer, more than double the long term average of 6.8 days.  

Minimum overnight temperatures were generally have normal during summer 2022, especially in August. The coolest temperature during the summer was 8.8 C on June 15th.


Daily Max & Min temperatures, summer 2022


Victoria received 51.8 mm of rain from June to August, about 10% more than its normal summer rainfall of 47 mm. All the rain fell during the first half of summer: there was no measurable rainfall after July 18.  There was 34.2 mm of rain in June (89% above normal), 17.4 mm in July (44% above normal), and only 0.2 mm of rain in August.

Victoria had 13 days with measurable rainfall this summer, just less than the normal 14.8 days.  There were 8 days with measurable rain (>0.2 mm) in June, 5 in July, and none in August.  


The chart below shows daily precipitation during summer 2022, and compares the cumulative precipitation with the 30-year average.   June was very wet, with the summer's wettest day occuring on June 9th, with 19.2 mm of rain.  In fact, this was the wettest summer day at Victoria Gonzales since 2005.  July 3rd was also a wet day, with 12.8 mm of rain.  Those two days accounted for more than 60% of the summer's rainfall.

Daily & Cumulative Rainfall in Victoria, summer 2022


The chart below compares the rainfall amounts in Victoria this summer with other locations in the region.  As is typically the case, Victoria Gonzales had the lowest amount, with a total of 52 mm.  The Victoria Airport received 68 mm.  Vancouver received 103 mm - about twice as much as Victoria (Vancouver typically receives about 3 times as much rain in the summer as Victoria).  Seattle received 76 mm.    

Regional Comparison of Summer 2022 Rainfall

Summer 2022 slightly less sunny than normal.  June and July were both cloudier than normal, while August was sunnier than normal.  

The table below shows the number of mostly sunny days (>80% of possible sunshine), partly cloudy days (20-80% of possible sunshine), and mostly cloudy days (<20% of possible sunshine).  There were more mostly sunny days than normal (51 in 2022 compared with the normal of 45 days).  However, there were also more mostly cloudy days than normal (14 days compared with the normal of 12).  More than half of the summer's mostly cloudy days were in June.



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