Weather patterns like the ongoing drought and heat have been so extreme of late, Chilliwack’s volunteer weather observer is using exclamation points to cap off sentences in his monthly weather reports.
“Following the hottest August, and hottest month ever on record…September 2022 was also the hottest on record!” Roger Pannett wrote in his September 2022 report.
A mean temperature of 22.65 C for September made it “an amazing 4.75 degrees above normal.”
It was not only the hottest, but the driest as well.
“The only measurable rainfall occurred in light showers, was on Sept. 23, ending the all-time drought of 55 days.”
With a meagre 0.9 mm of rain, 99.2 per cent below normal, it was the driest September in Chilliwack on record, Pannett stated.
September typically ushers in the start of the rainy season, but not this year.
In 2021, a month’s worth of rain fell on Sept. 17.
RELATED: September 2021 saw rain mid-month
In looking at the records over recent weeks, it was “re-occurring and often amplified high pressure ridges,” throughout August and September, “a trend never previously observed since Chilliwack records commenced in 1879,” he wrote.
The average humidity for September was unusually low at 59.6 per cent.
It was the seventh consecutive September with above normal temperatures, again, a trend never previously observed, according to Chilliwack records.
A few Pacific frontal systems that got close to the southwest “evaporated” as they advanced on shore.
Chilliwack’s total 2022 precipitation total to date is 809.4 millimetres on 121 days, compared to the average of 1,160 mm on 117 days.
Temperature extremes for September were a high of 31.7 C on Sept. 10, which is 10.1 C above normal with a low humidity of 18 per cent. On that day Chilliwack experienced “thick, unhealthy” wildfire smoke, with a very high smoke reading.
RELATED: September 2020 saw heat, bad AQ
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