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Port Alberni continues to lead B.C’s October heat parade and shatter many records

Century-old records fall away as mid-Island city sees temperatures in upper 20s Celsius
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The sun sets behind the Somass River at Victoria Quay in Port Alberni. (Elena Rardon / ALBERNI VALLEY NEWS)

Port Alberni has experienced a spate of record-breaking heat in the past two weeks. As in, breaking century-old records.

Which wouldn’t be odd if this were August and not October.

The city has broken so many records, it’s hard to keep up with them.

On Thursday, Oct. 13, Port Alberni recorded 25.7 degrees Celsius, breaking the old record of 22.8 C set in 1916.

On election day Saturday, Oct. 15, Port Alberni’s high was 27.6 degrees Celsius, breaking the record of 22.7 degrees set on the same day in 2002. On Sunday, Oct. 16, we were the provincial hot spot at 26.3 C, shattering a 115-year-old record by three degrees.

Port Alberni was B.C.’s hot spot again on Oct. 18, reaching 22.6 degrees at 4:30 p.m.

The Alberni Valley hasn’t had much rain since early June. Remember when we were wondering when summer would start?

“The airport (weather station) recorded a couple small rain showers in September, but we haven’t had a real rain event lasting through multiple days since the end of July,” said Chris Alemany, who monitors weather for his website, Alberniweather.ca.

On July 4, the weather station at the airport recorded 16.2 millimetres of rain. The city had a total of 30.4 mm of rain in July. Less than one millimetre was recorded for August, and 5.7 mm for September (a whopping 3.3 mm fell on Sept. 4).

Port Alberni has had zero rain through the first 18 days of October, although that will likely change this weekend. Environment Canada is predicting rain starting on Friday, Oct. 21 (with sunny breaks on Saturday) and running until Monday, Oct. 24. Temperatures are going to dip during the day to 12 degrees Celsius.

By Halloween we’ll probably be pining for summer again.



Susie Quinn

About the Author: Susie Quinn

A journalist since 1987, I proudly serve as the Alberni Valley News editor.
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