Vancouver Canada, May 2017. People enjoy the sunshine at English bay beach / Shutterstock
February's Metro Vancouver weather forecast included temperatures that felt like -14°C. Now, in stark contrast, the March forecast includes temperatures as high as 22°C inland.
In fact, February 2019 was the coldest February on record in Metro Vancouver since the records began in 1937. Conversely, March 2019 has already broken a number of daily highs, and the overall temperatures for the month are markedly higher.
Vancouver Is Awesome spoke to Matt MacDonald, Meteorologist, Environment Canada, who explained what the Lower Mainland has to look forward to in the coming days.
"26 records were broken across the province yesterday," he said. "Of course, Vancouver wasn't included in the round-up, because there was a slight westerly wind moving inland. So, although the weather was warm enough, this brought the final calculation down a couple of degrees. The record was 16.8°C in 1981, yesterday's high at the airport was 14°C."
"With that being said, a number of areas saw some soaring highs, which is very unusual for this time of year. For example, Squamish was the hottest place in Canada for the second day in a row yesterday. They reached a high of 23.5°C. Similarly, Pitt Meadows has daily records that go all the way back to 1874, and they broke the record set in 1996 of 20.7°C. They reached a high of 21.1°C."
MacDonald stated that these temperatures are expected to continue on Tuesday, March 19. In fact, he expects that more daily records may be broken, and that Vancouver will set a daily record high. Further, he notes that these temperatures are about 10°C to 11°C above the average for March.
"Today we have outflow winds moving out toward the sea from inland," he explains. "As a result, we will likely see some higher temperatures at the airport. The previous record was 14.5°C and it goes back to 1896. I'm thinking we will see a high of 16°C."
With that in mind, MacDonald said that inland temperatures will likely reach a high of 22°C, and that the mild temperatures will continue tomorrow. However, he adds that temperatures will begin to drop through the week, and that they should return to average temperatures next week.
