Saturday September 23, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The autumn equinox has come in with a sudden shift in weather. Only days ago the south Vancouver Island area was enjoying the extension of summer weather that spanned May through mid-September.
Temperatures have sudden fallen, with highs between only 13°C and 17°C this coming week.
Now the rains are coming. And the forecast for Sunday September 24 night into Monday September 25 includes strong winds: “A significant fall storm will arrive Sunday night,” says Environment Canada in their Victoria-area forecast today.
Wind to 90 km/h is expected for western and northern Vancouver Island. Winds in the range of 60 to 80 km/h will impact portions of the inner south coast, near the northern Strait of Georgia. Strong winds may result in local power outages.
Forecast rainfall amounts include near 50 mm for West Vancouver Island, 30 mm near northern Strait of Georgia, less than 10 mm for Victoria and the Gulf Islands, and 10 to 20 mm elsewhere.
The autumn equinox — or start of the fall season — was at 11:50 pm (PDT) last night Friday September 22.
The equinox is noted as when the number of hours of daylight are the same as the hours of night. We’re heading now into noticeably shorter days (even though the longest day was at the summer solstice in June).