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The North Shore’s endless summer continued right through September and shows no immediate signs of letting up, according to Environment Canada.
At least half a dozen B.C. hotspots – including Squamish, Hope, Lytton, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford and Agassiz – reached record temperatures of over 27 ℃ on Monday. Abbotsford hit a high of 28 ℃.
West Vancouver broke temperature records at both the beginning and the end of September – including a new daily high of 26.6 ℃ on Sept. 26. That's now continuing into October, with a daytime high of 23.5 ℃ measured at the West Vancouver weather station Oct. 2 and another temperature of 22.9 ℃ on Oct. 3.
“We’ve had a really persistent ridge of high pressure,” said Alyssa Charbonneau, Environment Canada meteorologist.
Normal highs at this time of year are about 17 degrees.
Looking ahead to the next seven days “we really don’t see any change,” she said. “It’s going to be sunny and dry.”
Rainfall was only about a quarter to a third of normal amounts last month for much of the south coast, said Charbonneau.
The West Vancouver weather station measured only 14.6 millimetres for the whole month of September. The month previous, in August, West Vancouver was only sprinkled with 11.6 mm of rain.
Thanks to a wet spring and early summer, Metro Vancouver’s water reservoirs – including the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam watersheds – are still within normal range, according to the regional government. On Sept. 25, Metro noted storage of 147.83 billion litres in the region’s water supply. Last year, the water supply was lower at this time – at about 145 billion litres of storage. Normally, the reservoirs drop until mid to late September then begin filling up with fall rains. That has yet to happen this year.
In West Vancouver, the municipality's Eagle Lake reservoir normally supplies about half of the district's water. But because of the extended dry weather, the municipality has reduced production at Eagle Lake and is now relying more on purchase of bulk water from Metro Vancouver's much larger water source, said district spokesperson Donna Powers.
Stage 1 watering restrictions remain in effect across Metro Vancouver until Oct. 15. Under those regulations, lawn watering is allowed only once a week in one early morning two-hour time slot.
