July 15, 2011 – Another day of rain and it is mid-July, this is brutal, where is our summer? I know we are whining as we did return on April 10th so what do I really have to complain about? Although the next 14 days are only calling for a couple of days rain, it is forecasting below normal temperatures and if the pattern continues we will receive more rainy days then are currently being predicted. The fact is our spring was a crappy on soggy and unseasonably cool. Farmers and garden centre operators are all saying the same thing, we have had the latest start in 30 years. The delay has made farmers nervous – many lost crops last fall when heavy rains kept them from getting their root vegetables out of the ground.
Leanne Johnson is the chief operating officer for GardenWorks, said all garden centres have been hard hit by the dismal planting weather. “It’s been the coldest wettest spring in 55 years,” she said. “It was so cold and wet early in the spring few people wanted to think about planting,” she added. “It’s been really tough,” Johnson said, predicting many gardeners simply won’t spend as much this year. “A lot of people are resigned to it being a lousy spring and they’re just not going to put the same kind of effort in as usual.”
Environment Canada meteorologist David Jones said Metro Vancouver got 95 millimetres of rain in April and 92 mm in May – that’s about 25 per cent more overall than the averages of 84 mm for a typical April and 68 mm for May. “It was cloudier, wetter and a lot cooler for two solid months,” he said. “April and May were very cold.” Much of the Fraser Valley even got snow on April 14.
As we all know June was not much better, a couple of nice days we can count on one hand. July started out crappy and it continues, yes we did have a couple of nice days last week, I think 3, but it is July. Yesterday was certainly a doozey, wow did it rain, a monsoon comes to mind. The forecast for tonight, big surprise, rain.
I am very happy to report that this past season we had no rain on any of our four (4) tours and it was warm or hot, and clear blue skies; definitely not cold. Yes, our 45 day tour in November and December and our three (3) 28 day tours, January, February and March all had no rain, not a drop (maybe 1 in northern Baja). I must state that we did experience lots of rain and cold weather when we returned to the US. We heard complaints from many people about the weather in Yuma, Palm Springs, El Centro and other such Snowbird destinations who froze their butts off for many weeks over the winter.
Hopefully the weather turns around here so everyone can enjoy some semblance of summer, we are confident of better weather to come as we return to Baja California on the 3rd Sunday of October.