Mired in a heat wave, the Harbour City saw the mercury rise to a record-setting high on Wednesday.
Nanaimo is in the midst of a heat warning and according to Doug Lundquist, Environment Canada meteorologist, the 32.2 C yesterday was the hottest for July 25 ever.
“It looks like there’s some data missing, but when you look at the hourly temperatures from yesterday, we did get to 32.2 C at least and the old record was 32 C set in 1988. It could have been higher than 32.2 C, but regardless it was a record,” said Lundquist.
While Wednesday was a record, the record for July 26 is 33.9 C and 35.4 C for July 27 and it will be harder to smash daily records over the next few days, said Lundquist.
“They’re really high records over the next couple of days, so it’s going to be harder to do, but it’s not impossible … we’re not forecasting it quite warm enough to do that,” Lundquist said.
According to Environment Canada, temperatures hovering around 30 C are forecast for the rest of the week and Lundquist said there may not be any relief until next week.
“On Monday or Tuesday it’ll start to break down a bit, with a bit more cloud and there’s a system moving in that might even give us a shower for later next week,” said Lundquist. “The main brunt of the heat is continuing through till the end of the weekend, cooling down early to mid next week.”
RELATED: Heat records broken across B.C.
With the heat warning, Lundquist recommends people be mindful of the heat and prepare for accordingly.
“Hydrate, drinking water, making sure that you get cool, protecting yourself from the sun with covering up and sunscreen, that type of thing,” said Lundquist. “Never leaving any living being in a car and also checking on those that are vulnerable, like the elderly, children and making sure that people that don’t have a chance to protect themselves are well watched over and throwing in that community spirit.”
Records for highest minimum relative humidity were also set Monday and Wednesday at 21 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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