Monday was an all-time April record high

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Environment Canada has made it official: yesterday was the hottest April day on record at the local airport weather station dating back to 1942.

Accompanied by a strong southwest wind the temperature yesterday rose to 28 point five degrees, at about 3 p.m. shattering the previous April 18 high of 19.1 set in 2010.

However, it also surpassed the single day record for the entire month of April, which had stood for 39 years, at 27.9 degrees, and was set on the April 25, 1977.

Meantime, the wind peaked later in the day at eight o’clock last night and became a major factor associated with the destructive wildfires that have prompted evacuation alerts and orders

According to the weather agency hourly charts, it was out of the west southwest when it hit 59 kilometres per hour at 8 p.m. last night, with gusts up to 75.

The good news is the low pressure centre responsible for the strong wind and abnormally warm temperatures has moved into the Northwest Territories and the sustained wind at last report was in the 20 to 25 kilometre range. Gust range from 30 to 35.

In addition, the temperature dropped nearly 20 degrees from 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon to 3 a.m. this morning and today’s high is forecast at only 14.

So this would appear to have been a single day event, unlike what happened in April of 1977. The aforementioned previous record high was set, on what was one of four consecutive days, when the high temperature posted at the airport weather station was better than 21 degrees or 70 Fahrenheit.

As for local precipitation, it is becoming a growing concern as we are now more than half way through the month with only 8.3 millimetres, or about 40 per cent of the April norm of 20: meaning this month remains on pace to become the tenth month of the last twelve to fail to surpass its precipitation average.