Canada's top ten weather stories for 2015

Record Hot Dry Summer across BC

Persistently warm “Pacific blob” waters and a large high pressure area off the west coast of North America led to record-breaking warmth and sunny skies over British Columbia for much of 2015. Spring mountain snowpack was less than half of normal, leaving rivers at their lowest recorded flows in 100 years. The prolonged intensity of the spring/summer's heat and the lack of rain concentrated the growing season and drew down water levels on reservoirs to critical marks. An example of meagre summer rains was Victoria where the total rainfall from May 1 to August 31 was 34 mm which is only 30% of normal and the lowest rainfall total in history for the four-month period.