Fools' spring? B.C. enjoyed fools' summer, breaking 100+ temp records in 4 days
On this day in weather history, B.C. broke 42 temperature records.
This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.
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In Canada, sometimes March plays tricks and gives us a fools' spring. But on March 18 and 19, 2019, Mother Nature played a trick on British Columbia with some fools' summer.
On those two days, B.C. experienced 74 record-breaking temperatures. This is particularly peculiar because B.C. had an unusually warm January and a brutally cold February, and then there was March.
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On March 18, Squamish took the lead, breaking its old 18°C with 23.5°C. Victoria Harbour broke its existing 14.6°C record with 17.1°C. The Sechelt area surpassed its 14°C with a new record of 18°C.
Overall, on the 18th, B.C. broke 32 temperature records.
On the 19th, the province added another 42 temperature records to the weather books. Tofino was the winner on the 19th, breaking its old record from 1928 of 19.4°C with a new high of 24.5°C. The Lower Mainland and Abbotsford also received similarly high temperatures.
Vancouver joined the part on the 19th, but not as aggressively as some of the other B.C. areas. The city broke its previous 14.5°C record from 2016 with a high of 15.5°C.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, this kind of heat in March hadn't been seen in 25 years. It was due to a strong upper ridge in the jet stream that pulled in warm air from the south.
The heat records continued. Overall, B.C. broke more than 100 temperature records in four days, some dating back to the 1800s.
To learn more about this heat streak, listen to today's episode of "This Day In Weather History."
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Thumbnail: "View toward Meares Island." Courtesy of Olivier Lévy/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0
