IT may not feel like it now, but summer is right around the corner for sun-starved residents of the North Shore, say meteorologists.
"We're about a week behind (the average start date for warm summer weather)," that's typically somewhere between July 10 and 14, said Doug Lundquist, Environment Canada meteorologist.
But Lundquist said summer is still on the way. "We might break into a more typical summer (weather) pattern in a week to 10 days," he said.
So far, July has been slightly colder than it usually is - but only just, said Lundquist.
The normal mean temperature for July at Vancouver International Airport is 17.5 degrees for the entire month. So far, that's only reached 16.9 degrees (in West Vancouver, that was slightly lower at 16.2 degrees.) But "the warmest part of our month hasn't come yet," Lundquist said.
It may not have felt like it, but June was also pretty average, he said - and was even slightly warmer than normal, with an average mean temperature this year of 15.5, compared to a normal mean of 15.2.
So why then does it feel like our dreary cold spring - driven by La Nina - just hasn't yet given way to summer heat?
Some of that is simply perception, said
Lundquist. "We have had some stellar years and we remember those."
Last July, for instance, started with an early heat wave on July 6 that brought six days of temperatures above 25 degrees - including two days with highs above 30 - to the Lower Mainland.
There has probably also been more cloudiness this year that feels distinctively un-summery, he said. Plus our spring - the coldest in 55 years - was truly, statistically awful.
People who live in the Lower Mainland shouldn't throw in the towel on summer yet though.
Historically, the best summer weather comes in the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August, said Lundquist.
But even then, he said, it's important to keep things in perspective. "Thirty-five degrees is not the norm," he said. "It can rain any day of the year."
jseyd@nsnews.com
