Recent Temperature and Precipitation Fluctuations along the British Columbia Coast

Abstract

Five-year running averages of mean annual temperature and total annual precipitation are shown for selected British Columbia coast stations. Similar averages of mean seasonal and annual temperature and total seasonal and annual precipitation are also shown for Agassiz, British Columbia. A general rising trend in mean annual temperature of not more than 2F over the 50-year period beginning about 1900 is found for the British Columbia coast. This rising trend is most pronounced in autumn and winter and least evident in spring and summer. There is some evidence that the trend may recently have begun to level off or way have ended. No significant decrease or increase in total annual precipitation has occurred over the British Columbia coast during the past half-century, although summer precipitation along the southern section seems to have been somewhat lower during the second quarter of this century than it was during the first.