It was the year when our famously mild weather was supposed to help Victoria earn the right to host the 2014 Juno Awards. Sadly, it was rainy in October, and Winnipeg won the bid.
Weather was also behind an unexpected appearance of brown pelicans in December. The birds’ foray north has been linked to climate change, but dropping temperatures soon sent them south.
But memories of December weather will likely focus on other events. A Christmas Day snowfall slowed Malahat trips, while a Dec. 19 storm cancelled 75 B.C. Ferries sailings.
Prognosticators forecast a warmer winter, but El Niño’s influence never materialized.
So far, it has been a “normal” Victoria winter.
You couldn’t say the same for the rest of the year, which gave us “Juneuary,” followed by an exceptionally dry July and August.
It rained 23 out of 30 days in May and June, Victoria’s “dry season.” Gloomy June was the 11th coolest in the past 70 years — not a record, but enough to create a lot of complaining.
South Island residents caught a sunny break later in the summer, with a 100day stretch in which the sun made an appearance on all but three. August and September were the driest on record for those months in Victoria and Nanaimo.
As for 2013, it’s set to come in with a frosty bang, with forecasts for the coming week calling for sunny skies and temperatures around freezing.
