There’s a perfectly logical explanation as to why the past few weeks have been cool, wet and windy on Vancouver Island — it wasn’t officially summer.
That designation came at 9:24 p.m. last night, marking the official 2017 summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The summer solstice also marks the longest day of the year.
On Vancouver Island, that means we’ll get between 16-17 hours of daylight. But in the northern-most parts of the country there is 24 hours of daylight at this time of the year.
And true to form, the weather outside is also beginning to brighten up.
Environment Canada is forecasting nothing but sunshine over the next seven days, including weekend highs reaching near 30 degrees. The average temperature for this time of the year hovers around 20 degrees with temperature records on the books between 28-30 degrees, meaning there is a chance that records could be broken either Saturday or Sunday.
No word on how warm it is at Stonehenge today; the prehistoric monument was built roughly 5,000 years ago and is thought to have been used to mark solstices and equinoxes. It still gets hundreds of people taking part in various ceremonies throughout the year, such as the summer solstice.
