A look at Spring 2018

Meteorological Spring (March to May) is now over, so it's time to look back at the spring of 2018.

Overall, this spring was slightly warmer than normal, with a mean temperature of 10.4 degrees versus the 30-year average of 10.0 degrees.  This spring was still cooler than spring 2014, 2015, or 2016.  Spring 2016 was the warmest on record in Victoria, with a mean temperature of 11.9 degrees.

The chart below compares daily maximum and minimum temperatures with the long-term averages for Victoria Gonzales.  Generally, temperatures have been close to average, expect for a spike in late April and again from May 5-15.  March was slightly below average temperatures, April was right on average for the month, and May was above average.

Daily Max & Min Temperatures at Victoria Gonzales, Spring 2018

Spring 2018 precipitation was a bit below average.  Both March and May experienced well below average rainfall, but April was much wetter than average.  The chart below shows daily and cumulative rainfall for March to May 2018 at Victoria Gonzales.  You can clearly see the very wet spell in April, especially from about April 4 to 16.  This less than two week period accounted for nearly two thirds of all the rain during Spring 2018.

Daily and Cumulative Rainfall at Victoria Gonzales, Spring 2018

A warm and dry May in Victoria

May 2018 was warm and dry in Victoria, but there were no monthly records set.

The mean temperature for May 2018 was 13.6 degrees at Victoria Gonzales, significantly warmer than the 30-year average of 12.4.  That was tied for the 8th warmest May out of 105 years on record at Victoria Gonzales.  In other words, May was warmer than average, but not record-breaking.  The warmest May at Gonzales was 14.2 degrees in 2005.

The average daily high and low temperatures for May 2018 were 17.5 degrees and 9.8 degrees, in both cases more than one degree above the normals of 16.3 and 8.4 degrees.  The warmest temperature of the month was 25.2 degrees on May 13th.  The coolest temperature was 7.5 degrees on May 2nd.

The chart below shows the daily maximum and minimum temperatures this May compared with the long term averages.  Temperatures were above normal for most of the month, but especially from about May 5-15.

Daily Max & Min Temperatures at Victoria Gonzales, May 2018

Following a wet April, May was dry in Victoria with just 8.8 mm of rainfall at Victoria Gonzales, about one third of the 30-year average of 28 mm.  This was the 15th driest May on record at Victoria Gonzales (with records going back 105 years), so again, while it was drier than normal, it wasn't really too unusual.  The driest May on record in Victoria was 1.8 mm back in 2015.

Victoria's entire May rainfall in 2018 all came on one day, May 10.  On average, Victoria gets 9 days with measurable rainfall in May, so having just one day with rainfall is well below the average.  The chart below shows the daily and cumulative precipitation in Victoria this May, compared with the average cumulative precipitation.  Clearly, rainfall was well below normal.  There was no measurable rainfall during the last 21 days of the month.

Daily and Cumulative Rainfall at Victoria Gonzales, May 2018

While Victoria typically gets less rainfall than other locations in the region, that was not the cast this past May.  While Victoria Gonzales received 8.8 mm of rainfall in May, there was only 3.4 mm of rain at the Victoria Airport.  Typically, the Airport receives about one third more rainfall than Victoria Gonzales in May.  The comparison with Vancouver was even more unusual this year.  Normally, Vancouver receives about three times as much rain than Victoria in May (85 mm versus 28 mm), but in 2018 Vancouver's May rainfall was just 1.6 mm.