Summer Solstice Seconds – First Look at July Long Weekend
Solstice Thursday June 20 1:50PM PDT
The solstice will occur just 29 minutes after midday in Port Alberni — the sun is highest around 1PM, not noon, during Daylight Savings Time. If you check the Almanac Page you’ll see sun rise is at 5:13AM today, the 19th, as well as the 20th. It is actually different… but only by seconds.
I love this chart at Time and Date. Look at the Day Length and Difference.
The symmetry of the added and subtracted time length is satisfying. 🙂 We get 2 seconds more daylight on the 20th compared to the 19th. And then we give it back the next day. You’ll also notice the sunrise creeps later before the sunset does.
A couple hot days, then cool through Canada Day
June hasn’t been *that* cold
It may seem like we’re really cold this year, but June is supposed to be wet… It is normally the ‘rainiest’ summer month at 49mm normally. In fact, according to the Somass station (1971-1996), the rainiest June day in Port Alberni was 48mm all on one day, June 25th 1980.
There is actually an hourly record for that day… it got up to only 14ºC at 9AM and rained all day. Brrr. June 1980 only saw one day with a temperature of 25ºC. Now that’s Juneuary!
Thursday/Friday heat
Now that we have a little perspective, the weather Thursday and Friday is going to feel truly balmy. We had been forecast to get to 30ºC but that has come back a little. We’ll see if we still hit that magic number, Friday will be the best chance. The UWash models below have us up to 28.8ºC (84ºF)
Saturday Wet – Sunday Patchy
The heat won’t last. Showers roll into the North Island, as far south as Tofino and Ucluelet but it doesn’t look like we’ll see much in Port Alberni or most of the South Island.
It won’t last though. Just enough for a little drink for the gardens. Sunday will be much more variable with what look like patchy cells of rain popping up all over the Island.
Canada Day Weekend
It’s still pretty far out there for a solid forecast but the general feeling is we won’t see any big heat or high pressure. Will it rain? There is some disagreement but if it does rain it won’t be like June 25, 1980. 🙂
You can see on the right of the chart the forecast next week for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The best chance for rain is Thursday, maybe a few millimetres. The bigger concern might be the wind. It could be a little chilly on Thursday night and Friday morning for the campers (including myself!).
We’ll wait for Monday to get a good picture of the long weekend. It’d be great to get a day of sun, maybe it’ll be Sunday. 🙂
Have a great day!
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