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June, July drier than average

The weather on Haida Gwaii this summer is the envy of some other regions of the province.It may not seem like it's been all that great, but according to fire weather forecaster Jesse Ellis, the islands have had much less rain than usual.During a typical June, we get 56.2 mm of rain. This June, we saw only 34.5 mm, about 60 percent of normal levels.As for July, by halfway through the month only 6.5 mm of rain had been reported - a fraction of the 46.7 mm that falls in the average July.These numbers come from the Sandspit weather station. Mr. Ellis also looked at the temperatures, but said so far this year, the average daily maximum temperature is pretty much the same as usual."To sum it all up, summer at Sandspit so far has been near normal in terms of temperatures, but noticeably drier than the average year," he said.Canadian long-range computer weather models suggest that we will have near normal temperatures and precipitation for the rest of July, August and September, he added.The Sandspit weather contrasts favourably with the weather in the rest of the coastal fire region, according to fire information officer Marg Drysdale.On Vancouver Island and the mainland coast, the summer so far has been unusually wet and cool, she said."You're having warmer, more consistent temperatures and less precipitation than the rest of the fire region," she said. "It's quite a flip."