May was another warm month

After a record warm April in Victoria, our warm streak continued in May.  The mean temperature of 14.1 degrees was just shy of the record (14.2), set back in 2005.  The 30-year normal temperature for May at Victoria Gonzales is 12.3 degrees.  The average daily high/low temperatures this May were 18.3/9.9 compared with the normal of 16.2/8.4.  May was even warmer at the Victoria Airport, with a mean temperature of 14.4 degrees.  This made May 2016 the warmest on record at the Airport, following the warmest April on record.  It's pretty rare to get back-to-back monthly temperature records!  The average daily high/low temperatures at the Airport were 19.7/9.1 - more like June than May.

The chart below compares the daily high and low temperatures this May at Victoria Gonzales compared with the 30-year average.  You can see that temperatures were well above average during the first half of the month.  Temperatures were closer to average in the second half of the month, although there was a spike on May 31.

Daily High & Low Temperatures at Victoria Gonzales, May 2016

May was also dry, with just 10.4 mm of rain in Victoria, compared with the normal of 28.6 mm.  By comparison, there was 12.8 mm of rain at the Victoria Airport, 51.6 mm at the Vancouver Airport, and 76.6 mm at Vancouver Harbour.

The chart below shows daily and cumulative rainfall (red line) compared with the average cumulative rainfall (blue line) at Victoria Gonzales for May 2016.  Clearly, it was much drier than average.  Nearly three quarters of the month's rainfall fell on one day - May 28.

Daily and Cumulative Rainfall at Victoria Gonzales, May 2016

With the mild temperatures in March, followed by record or near record temperatures in April and May, Spring 2016 was the warmest on record at both Victoria Gonzales and at the Airport.  At Gonzales the mean temperature was 11.9 degrees compared with the average of 10.1.  Average high/low temperatures at Victoria Gonzales were 15.4/8.3 compared with the normal spring high/low of   13.5/6.5.

How long will this string of warmer than average temperatures last?  Perhaps not much longer since El Nino is now dead and there is a La Nina on the horizon.