Alberniweather and Port Alberni Summary for August and Summer of 2023
Story of the Month – Another All Time Record and Drought continues with Smoke.
It was an interesting month with hot weather throughout, though not quite as extreme as July it would be extreme in any other year.
Robertson Creek set a new all time record for Environment Canada stations in the Valley with 39.5ºC on August 14th. Alberniweather reached over 40º that day as did others. We came within 1º of breaking another all time record on the 15th but just missed.
As sometimes happens, the clear skies mid-month allowed for cooling in the Valley and the Airport set two low temperature records for the day but they were far removed from any all time records.
Finally, the month saw horrible fires in the BC Interior and Northwest Territories, forcing thousands to evacuate and hundreds to lose their homes. Wind patterns pushed the smoke that has been blanketing much of North America (if not parts of the entire North Hemisphere) on the Island for the first time since June. We had a few days of a poor Air Quality.
It is unfortunate that Environment Canada does not include air quality in its readings and graphs. (It is the responsibility of the BC Ministry of Environment). I may attempt to add air quality readings to my large spreadsheet and graphs that you see here. But it will take awhile to add it into my system. We’ll see how it goes.
Other notable events: The station was moved from high above my shed to a location in the yard. This will be temporary while we rebuild our shed. The high temperatures may be a couple tenths of degrees warmer in its new location as it is a little less exposed to the breeze but I don’t think it has been significant.
Story of the Summer Season – Drought, Fire and Isolation
Meteorological Summer (June/July/August) 2023 is officially over.
There is no doubt that the story this season is our collective isolation from Port Alberni to the West Coast due to the Fire at Cameron Lake. The cause was the persistent drought that began with a vengeance in May and has continued through August.
According to the records which you can see best in the graphs below, any total rainfall for summer under 50mm is very low historically. The average rainfall for the summer months is 110mm. This summer period, we only received 36mm and 42mm at Alberniweather and the Airport respectively. We can’t add in data from Robertson Creek hatchery station yet as they appear to be only updating the data at Environment Canada every week or two but I anticipate the totals to be the same when they come in.
We were lucky not to get any more fire activity after the June period but we did see a few days of lightning activity through the summer that sparked fires on the North Island and elsewhere (including a few at the start of September).
The summer of 2023 will join 2022 and 2021 as having historically high average temperatures. Check out the graphs below and you’ll see the Average Maximum, and Mean numbers are all grouped within the past 10 years at high points since records began in 1900.
As with the rest of the world, Port Alberni is seeing the direct impacts of human-caused climate change and warming. Our already hot summers are indisputably getting hotter and drier.
Airport Daily Records Set this Month
Set at Airport* since 1994 and compared to Valley stations** for all time.
(since 1895 for rain, 1900 for temperatures, 1980 for snow on ground)
The Airport set five new records. Three high temperature and two low temperature records were set. None of them were all time records. However, the Robertson Creek station set a new all time record on August 14 of 39.5ºC. It is notable that the new low temperature records set at the Airport on August 19 and 20 were both more than 5ºC warmer than the all time lows for those days at Beaver Creek in the previous century. I would be surprised if those historical summertime all time low temperatures are ever broken.
- August 14 – High Temp 37.5ºC at Airport but Robertson Creek reached 39.5ºC a NEW All Time Record. Previous record was 36.7ºC in 1933/42 at Port Alberni.
- August 15 – High Temp 38.7ºC – All Time is 39.4ºC in 1933 at City of Port Alberni. (Robertson Creek hit 39.0ºC)
- August 19 – Low Temp 7.5ºC (tied with 1998) – All Time is -0.6ºC in 1945 at Beaver Creek.
- August 20 – Low Temp 6.9ºC – All Time is 1.7ºC in 1945 at Beaver Creek.
- August 27 – High Temp 35.1ºC – All Time is 38.0ºC in 2019 at Robertson Creek.
This Month’s Graphs from Historic Alberni Valley Weather Stations
Combining Environment Canada and other Personal Weather Stations
Latest values on the far right, click to enlarge/download.
Summer 2023 Graphs from Historic Alberni Valley Weather Stations
This Month’s City Values
Compared to Normal
Please shift your phone to landscape/horizontal to see the table.
| Extreme (ºC) | Average (ºC) | (mm) | Wind (kph) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Max | Min | Min | Mean | Max | Rain | Dir | Speed | Day |
| Alberniweather | 40.2 | 9.8 | 14.1 | 20.9 | 29.6 | 14.0 | SSE | 40.2 | 6 |
| Alberni Elem | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Maquinna Elem | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Dave’s (Uptown) | 38.9 | 9.9 | 14.3 | 20.8 | 28.8 | 21.33 | NA | 14.5 | 16 |
| Nick’s (South Port) | 35.7 | 10.6 | 14.5 | 20.3 | 27.0 | 18.03 | NA | 12.9 | 9 |
| Kitsuksis (North Port) | 39.8 | 9.2 | 13.4 | 20.1 | 28.4 | 18.78 | NA | 21.9 | 17 |
| Extreme (ºC) | Average (ºC) | Average (mm) | Ext. Wind (kph) | ||||||
| Max | Min | Min | Mean | Max | Rain | Dir | Speed | Day | |
| Combined City | 40.2 | 9.2 | 14.1 | 20.5 | 28.5 | 18.0 | SE | 40.2 | 6 |
| August Normal (Somass) 1971-2000 |
10.5 | 17.9 | 25.2 | 41.8 | |||||
| Difference from Normal | +3.6 | +2.6 | +3.3 | -23.8 (43%) |
|||||
|
Extreme Day at Somass |
38.4 | 1.1 | 68.2 | 48 | |||||
| Max | Min | Min | Mean | Max | Rain (mm) | Dir | Speed | Day | |
| Extreme (ºC) | Average (ºC) | Wind (kph) | |||||||
| Days of Rain | >=0.2 mm | >=5 mm | >=10 mm | >=25 mm | |||||
| Normal | 7.5 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 0.29 | |||||
| This Month (Alberniweather) |
7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
Official Airport and Robertson Creek Environment Canada Stations Compared to Normal
Please shift your phone to landscape/horizontal to see the table.
| Extreme (ºC) | Average (ºC) | (mm) | Wind (kph) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Max | Min | Min | Mean | Max | Precip | Dir | Speed | Day |
| 38.7 | 6.6 | 11.6 | 20.0 | 28.3 | 18.7 | SE | 34 | 01 | |
|
Robertson Creek |
NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | ||
| July Normal (Robertson Creek) 1971-2000 |
10.4 | 17.9 | 25.4 | 59.6 | |||||
| Difference from Normal (from Airport) |
-0.1 | +1.2 | +2.4 | -47.8 (19.8%) |
|||||
|
Extreme Day |
39.4 | 3.3 | 33.3 | NA | |||||
| Max | Min | Min | Mean | Max | Rain (mm) | Dir | Speed | Day | |
| *New Extreme for Month | |||||||||
| Days of Precipitation | >=0.2 mm | >=5 mm | >=10 mm | >=25 mm | |||||
| Normal | 8.2 | 2.0 | 0.90 | 0.21 | |||||
| This Month (Airport) |
2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
* May have used backup Environment Canada Data source at WeatherStats.ca for Missing Data
** Short Term means since 1994 at the new AVRA Airport. Airport Records are compared to the 30+ year weather stations of record since 1900 (1895 for rain) at Beaver Creek, Port Alberni “City” and Robertson Creek. Note that records pre 1950 may be more likely to over-estimate high temperatures.
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