El Nino?

There are a lot of news articles surfacing in the  US, Japan, Peru and Australia about a developing El Nino condition.  They are not calling it with certainty and some of the El Ninos that develop far out into the southern Pacific don't always have consequences for North America, but the data seems to be trending towards an emerging El Nino.  As I recall for the Pacific BC Coast, past El Ninos can bring drier winters - some with very little snow and warm summers.  The bad part is El Ninos are almost always followed by La Nina's and La Nina's can be evil, with big rainstorms followed by cooler wetter deeper snow winters for us.  The last two years we experienced rare back to back La Nina's which if you've been reading the BellaCoolaBlog for awhile you will know the falls of 2010 and 2011 were memorable for all the wrong reasons around these parts.

The plant in the photo is the Rattle Snake Plantain (Goodyera oblongifolia), a lovely leafed plant of forests which is actually in the orchid family, but the flower spikes are not that spectacular, the leaves by far being the most attractive.  Grizzly

August River

The good August weather has continued in the Bella Coola Valley.  Saturday evening clouded over for awhile and a few drops of rain fell, but Sunday was great again.  A few thunder claps passed over the east end of the valley on Sunday night.   The Bella Coola River is slightly higher than would be seen in a 'normal' summer (when the spring runoff mostly happens in May and June instead of June and July).   Its coming down, but the colour is still more July looking.  Grizzly

Hot

After a bit of a rainy day on Monday this week that really helped to spruce up the lawns a little bit, the hot sun returned on Tuesday and that's the way it's staying.  30 C at the Bella Coola Airport today and only light westerly winds.  A whole week of hot weather is forecast.  It's been a great August.  Grizzly

Fish Watching

Visitors to the Bella Coola Valley in late July and August are often suprised to see the streams full of live and dead chum and pink salmon, all in the peak of spawning activity.  "It seems early" is the comment often heard, but a general rule for salmon spawning on the Pacific Coast of North America is that the earliest spawners in Alaska start in June (Bristol Bay Sockeye) and as you go south the spawning slides later into the season, with the Central Coast where we are at being about mid summer.  As you get south into southern BC and Washington the pink and chum salmon go on into October.  It's all based on the shorter seasonal opportunities in the north of suitable water and weather conditions.
 

We had a bit of change in weather today, with some needed light rain starting mid day, giving the valley a nice light soaking which will help to lower the forest fire hazard.  It's supposed to get hot again after that.  Grizzly

Warm Days, Cool Mornings

As soon as August comes the beginning of the end of summer signs become evident.  We've had some great weather this month, but the night time temperatures are getting closer to single digit and the amount of dew in the mornings is noticeable.  One nice thing about August weather that the boaters appreciate is that on warm days the amount of inflow winds tends to lessen and there can be some really pleasant days on the water if it isn't really windy.  I'm hearing of some people having early corn ready already which is great, and means that July and August had some pretty decent weather.  Grizzly

Fish Trap

Last week I showed you a picture of the sandbags being prepared by Snootli Hatchery to use for anchoring the fish fences to trap chum salmon for the hatchery.  These fences are now operating.  The salmon enter the between trap space through a small lead on the left side fence, are held in between fences until the hatchery staff sort through them and then some are released up stream and some used for brood stock.  Great spots to watch fish (on the creeks that are clearer than this one!).  Grizzly

Fine Weather

The Bella Coola Valley has been enjoying the hot fine summer weather most of the rest of the province has also had since Wednesday last week.  High temps in the low 30's (C), warm nights and no morning fog have all been the norm.

Any late snow pack melt  in the mountains has been quickly catching up this week to normal years and you can see it in the slightly elevated levels of runoff in the side tributaries to the Bella Coola River and the Bella Coola itself.  It's been a good period of weather. Grizzly

Dog Days of Summer

If you have to pick one week of the whole year where the odds are the most in favour of getting a good week of weather in the Bella Coola Valley, it has to be the first week of August.  My experience is that even in a nasty summer, this coming week has the best chance of being a good week.  It looks like Environment Canada agrees with 7 days of sun forecast.  I'll be taking  a few days off from the .bellacoolablog.com to
 enjoy our "Dog Days of Summer". Grizzly