After a March that bestowed upon Greater Victoria more rainy days than any other March ever recorded, Saanich Peninsula farmer Dan Ponchet is well behind in his work.
“Mainly, it’s a case of we weren’t able to get on our fields to get anything planted early,” said Ponchet, of Dan’s Farm and Country Market. “With those kinds of wet conditions, you can’t do anything in a field. You just make a mess.”
He said there was enough of a respite from the rain for him to finally get planting outdoors on Monday.
“That’s a month or more later than I have in the past, just because of how wet it’s been.”
Ponchet put in broccoli, cauliflower and early potatoes, and reseeded radishes, beets and carrots.
“Then it rained again on Monday night so there was no continuing on, on Tuesday.”
He said there has been only a little more outdoor planting in the days since.
Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald said 29 of the 31 days in March had rain.
Hours of sunshine were down, too, of course.
“That was the third gloomiest March on record,” MacDonald said. “We got 96.9 hours of sun and the normal is 142 hours, so it was significantly below.”
He said the gloomiest March in local weather annals came in 1989 with 87.7 hours. The second gloomiest was in 1972 with 91.9 hours.
Total rainfall for March 2017 was 138 millimetres at Victoria International Airport, making it the fourth wettest March on record. Normal rainfall at the airport in March is 78 mm.
It was a different story at the Gonzales weather station, where the March rainfall norm is 46.5 mm. Last month, 77.8 mm fell.
MacDonald said such factors as the proximity of the Gonzales station to the water and the area’s ocean winds account for the variation in precipitation totals.
March temperatures were much closer to usual numbers, with a 6.6 C average at Victoria International Airport, just under the 6.8 C norm. At Gonzales, the temperature averaged 7 C, as compared with the normal 7.6 C.
