For some people, dry January means a month with no alcohol.
But this year in the capital region and other parts of sa国际传媒, it also refers to a decidedly arid weather pattern over the past two weeks.
After an average December that saw 151 millimetres of precipitation at Victoria International Airport and 93 mm at the Gonzales weather station — close to normal levels — there hasn’t been much of anything in the way of rain or snow.
A typical January at the airport brings about 144 mm of precipitation, said Environment sa国际传媒 meteorologist Brian Proctor.
But by Jan. 13 — almost the halfway point — only 28.2 mm has been tallied.
“So we’re very dry so far,” Proctor said
At Gonzales, where January usually sees about 111 mm of precipitation, only 16.4 mm had been recorded by Jan. 13.
“It’s kind of an interesting start to winter,” Proctor said. “And the forecast isn’t really changing much in the next little while, so it’s going to remain fairly dry.”
There is almost no rain or snow in the forecast for Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo and Courtenay at least through to next Monday, with Thursday the only day with a chance of showers.
The dry conditions are persisting for much of the inner south-coast area, Proctor said, and are expected to continue for the next week or so.
And there’s no winter storm of note waiting in the wings.
“It’s just that the storm track is basically sagging southward,” Proctor said.
“We’ve got a bit of a weak Arctic outbreak coming, but I don’t think it’s going to have much impact upon the south end of the Island.
“The real depth of the cold air is shunting eastward.”
Increased cold air could also be coming to the Interior and some of sa国际传媒’s inlets, he said, but “nothing is going to drastically alter conditions for us on the Island.”
Around this time last year, Greater Victoria and much of the rest of Vancouver Island saw a snowstorm that dropped up to 20 centimetres — including 18 centimetres at the airport — leading to cancellation of grade-school classes, along with mail service and some bus routes.
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