The following records are for the Vancouver Airport unless otherwise noted. Vancouver airport records started in 1937.
January 2011 – very wet, but no record set
There was record-breaking cold in late February, 2011. On February 25, we had a record low of -8.1˚C (previous coldest temperature in February was -6.5˚C in 1993) the high was -1˚C on Feb 24, 2011. About a dozen low temperature records were broken on Feb 25 and 26. Lots of snow
Early March had strong winds. March was cold and grey and soggy . There were only four days in March without rain … not a lot of rain just some every day. Only 88 hours of sunshine in March versus average of 134 hours. There was near record snowfalls on the local mountains.
April 4 in Richmond and Chilliwack was coldest day and night on record.
By April 7, we had had double the average rainfall for April to this date.
April 23, the vineyards were 10-14 days behind usual grape vine development
April was third coldest April on record with a mean temperature of 7˚C (average is 9.2˚C)
First two weeks of May also 2˚C below average; the temperatures averaged 10˚C and usually averages 12˚C. There was 50 mm of rain in first two weeks of May (average MONTHLY May rainfall is 54 mm)
May 16, Grouse Mountain Resorts announced that it would remain open until July 1 after a phenomenal season with 995 cm of snow to May 16, the most snow in the recorded history of Grouse Mountain (10 years of records).
Meanwhile farmers struggled with a cool wet grey Spring. Field crops like peas and beans rotted in the ground, strawberries are weeks behind normal.
Fields were too wet and the farmers were three to four weeks late in planting cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, and corn.
Blueberries were two weeks behind, but the sun came out in time for pollination.
David Phillips of Environment Canada said April and May brought near record-setting dreariness to the West Coast.
Greenhouse growers had less light therefore reduced growth.
April and May were the coldest in 50 years. In fact in the last 100 years, there was only one colder April and May (1955). April-May temps were 2-3˚C below normal.
May had 33% more rain than usual but only 131 hours of sunshine (versus the average of 231 hours) 57% of normal
Collecting the stats: this Spring was the coldest and wettest in 55 years.
June was average.
By early July, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries were two to three weeks late. This is serious because if the berries all ripen at once, they compete for the customers plus there is a shortage of pickers and the fruit is often small. If it gets hot suddenly, the fruit will scald and be worthless.
The Fraser River usually crests in mid June. In 2011 it crested in mid-July. Many campsites on the river were unable to open until the end of July.
July had the fewest number of hours of sunshine in 18 years, For sunshine, July, 2011 was the ninth worst in 60 years.
So, what does this mean to the home gardener?
- poor pollination of fruits
- replanting of vegetables that rotted (beans, tomatoes)
- lower yields
- lower sugars i.e. fruit not sweet
- later harvests
For some reason, there was a huge crop of buttercups in the farmer’s fields and pastures in my area. The Valley was yellow with their blossoms. Why? Perhaps a combination of a cold winter, grey Spring, and low nitrogen allowed more seeds to germinate?
The first three weeks of August had no rain! By the end of August, we had had the fifth driest August on record. Vancouver had only one day of rain in August.
On September 7, White Rock set a record with temps of 28˚C. The second week of September found more than 70 temperature records shattered in B.C.
The first rain of the month was September 15, but by the end of the month we had had 30% more than average September rainfall.
October, November were average.
On December 28, the ‘pineapple express’ gave us 10˚C which broke a record set in 1980. By December 31stwe had had only 50% of the normal rainfall for December.
Meanwhile, the Atacama Desert in Chile had more than 2” of rain which is 5x average and the plants all burst into bloom.
January 2012 – third week was cold and snow, but no records set
In mid-January, NASA announced that nine of the ten warmest years ever recorded have occurred in the 21st Century i.e. from 2000 to 2011.
What does the 2011 weather summary mean? Leaching of nutrients, poor pollination meant lower yields of fruits - many late-season apples did not ripen. Cold weather in February is not as important as cold weather in November (2010) because the plants are hardened-off in February.
Because the fruit crops were reduced in 2011, if we have good weather at bloom-time in 2012, there should be a good crop. In 2011, with few fruit to nourish, all the nutrients went into making fruit buds.
Prepared by Derry Walsh ~ MG ‘84
