Environmental Conditions

Meteorological Conditions

Historical weather data was taken at Tofino Airport and is available to the public for download on the Government of Canada website.

The calendar weather report for September 2015 was found on Weather Underground.

The most prevalent weather patterns during the month of September 2015 included mostly sunny, mostly cloudy, and scattered showers. The month ended with about the same temperature as the beginning of the month, but had some significantly warmer days during the second week. Weather patterns tended to maintain themselves for more than just one day, such as the stretch of mostly sunny days at the end of the month.

Temperature ranged from about 5°C to nearly 25°C. The warmest days, such as 11 Sep and 12 Sep, were days that the weather was reported as mostly sunny, while the coolest days mostly consisted of scattered showers. The week of data collection started with moderate temperatures at 15°C, increased to a high of 25°C halfway through, and then decreased to 13°C again by 15 Sep. Days that were cloudy or rainy maintained temperature better, whereas mostly sunny days had larger differences between the midday high and nighttime low.

Pressure ranged from just under 1004mb to about 1021mb. At the beginning of data collection on 8 Sep pressure was 120mb, near its highest, and proceeded to declined consistently until it reached 1004mb by the end of data collection.

Levels of precipitation were sporadic, with half of the month not receiving any rain and the remaining half receiving varying amounts of rain. 23 Sep received the most precipitation of the month in 2015, with almost 60mm, but most days saw less than 10mm. The dates during which data was collected received comparatively little, with less than 15mm for the entire week. The total for the month was 254.80mm.

Wind speed was most often under 25km/h and usually peaked around midday. The day with the fastest winds were 13 Sep, reaching nearly 40km/h, and four days in the latter half of the month going past 30km/h. Wind speed during data collection was consistent for the most part, with daily peaks around 15km/h, but 12 Sep and 13 Sep both peaked much higher.

Wind direction didn't have many consistencies and could come from any direction at any time of day. During data collection, it seemed there was slightly more chance of the wind coming from the North at night and from the South during the day, but there were many points where this was untrue. It should be considered that wind data from Tofino Airport may not represent the region's general wind patterns, as there are buildings and changing terrain that alters wind direction and funnels the wind, whereas out at sea this is not much of a problem. There is often an up inlet (landward) breeze that sets up in the afternoon as part of a land/sea breeze created by the differential heating of land and water.


Climatological Averages

Climatological normals data was taken at Tofino Airport over the span of 30 years (1981-2010) and is available to the public for download on the Government of Canada website.

The temperature appeared to be higher during most of the year in 2015 when compared to climatological normals, though the mean and max temperatures in September showed that temperature was slightly decreased compared to the 30-year normals.

Precipitation levels in 2015 were nearly 400mm lower than the 30-year average, although there were individual months with higher rain levels. Though not shown here, there was no snow measured in 2015, compared to the 30-year average of 33cm.


Tofino Creek Daily Discharge (m3/sec) 2015

Tofino Creek empties into the head of Tofino Inlet. In 2015 it had the highest daily discharge in late March, mid September and early December. It had the lowest discharge between the beginning of May and late August with almost 0 m3/s discharged daily in the summer months.

Data provided by the Government of Canada.

Coastal Oceanographic Data

Data was taken from buoy C46206 at La Perouse Bank and is available to the public for download on the Government of Canada website.

Atmospheric Conditions

(Above) The location of buoy C46206 in relation to Tofino, BC.

(Left) Variations of wind roses were made in order to better visualize directional data off the coast of Vancouver Island near Clayoquot Sound. There were two active wind sensors on the buoy at La Perouse Bank. The left roses used data from sensor #1, and the right roses used sensor #2. The yearly winds mostly came from the South-East and North-West and were close to equal in their prevalence. September also saw winds from both of these directions, winds from the North-West occurred more frequently

Oceanic Conditions

CTD data collected by the Bullseye sensor at 1259m depth, approximately 480 km off the coast of the west coast of Victoria Island.

Current meter data was not available for selected years. Some historic trends for current direction and speed exist for June 2010 - May 2011 and June 2012 - May 2013.

A new Oceanic Radar System began collecting real-time tidal data in 2018, and would be helpful in contextualizing future data.

Historical Lighthouse Data

Amphirite lighthouse is the closest lighthouse to Clayoquot Sound and below are surface water temperatures and salinity recorded on a daily basis in 2015.

Temperature range for 2015 was between just under 8 degrees Celsius to just over 16 degrees with the highest temperature occurring between July and August, and the coldest occurring around the end of the year. Salinity ranged from 24 PSU to 32 PSU, and the correlation shows only a slightly positive trend, meaning that salinity did increase overall throughout the year.

Tidal Conditions

Tidal conditions captured from three BC Canadian tidal gauges ( #8615) Government Canada Website

Tides in Clayoquot Sound are mixed-semidiurnal. Based on data collected from the Tofino tide gauge located in the map below, the highest high tide was 3.35 m on the 14th and the lowest high tide was 2.89 m on the 8th. highest low tide was 1.56 m on the 8th and the lowest low tide was 0.71 m on the 11th.


2015 Nutrients

Overview of Nitrate, Phosphate, and Silicate for 2015 samples which were taken at Surface, Chlorophyll Max, and Bottom between September 8-15, 2015. Nutrient data was not collected for Bedwell or Tofino Inlet.

Nitrate (NO3)

Phosphate (PO4)

Silicate (SiOH4)

The nutrients for 2015 were only sampled in the Northern 3 inlets which are Sydeny, Shelter, and Herbert. The nutrients here show examples of an upwelling year due to high nutrients on the coastal stations (station 31 and 61). Overall, we can see spatial differences between the nutrients at each depth. Surface tends to have higher than previous year nutrients but still lower than the chlorophyll max and bottom samples. The chlorophyll max is only taken at 4 stations in Herbert Inlet and Millar Channel. The bottom samples are all higher than the rest of the samples taken except station 31 and 61 on the coast. This is because this area is flushed with the tides.