Grey month
Weather observers at Powell River airport recorded only 31.6 hours of bright sunshine for January. That’s about 10 hours less compared to Environment Canada’s historical climate data compiled between 1981 and 2010.
John Ede, who collects local weather data, said his team recorded 121.0 millimetres of precipitation at the airport, about 26 millimetres less than the historical average of 147.4 millimetres.
Temperature-wise, the warmest day was January 25 with a high temperature of 12.1° Celsius. On the coldest day, January 1, the mercury fell to -4.8°.
The mean monthly maximum temperature for January was 7.7°, about two degrees warmer than average, while the mean monthly minimum was 2.7°, about one and a half degrees warmer than average. January’s average temperature was 5.2°, also about one and a half degrees warmer than historical averages.
Environment Canada is forecasting this warm and dry trend to continue on through the spring for Powell River.
Setting it straight
In last week’s Peak, a story headlined “Public hearing” contained an inaccuracy. The story states that city council gave two readings to proposed Zoning Bylaw 2399 at the January 15 council meeting and directed the bylaw to proceed to public hearing. That did occur, but as a result of comments expressed during question period at the end of the meeting, before council adjourned, it passed a motion to withdraw the public hearing direction and the two readings. A new report from staff will be tendered.