Vancouver's summer felt cooler and wetter because it actually was

Vancouver's summer didn't feel right — but that's because the city has spent the last six years chasing extremes.

This year, the mean temperature across June, July and August hit 17.8°C, slightly above the historical average of 17.4°C. Precipitation totalled 97.7 mm, well below the 122.2 mm that normally falls during those three months. By the numbers, summer 2026 was unremarkable. By the feeling, it was strange.

"I felt like it felt cooler and wetter as well," said Morgen Shull, an operational forecaster with Environment and Climate Change Canada, to The Georgia Straight.

The disconnect stems from recent history. Since 2020, Vancouver has endured a string of anomalous summers — scorching, bone-dry months punctuated by the 2021 heat dome that experts have called the most deadly weather event in Canadian history. That five-year run of extremes reset what residents expected summer to look like.

"We've kind of gotten used to that as being more normal, which, if you're looking at statistics, is not the normal," Shull said. "So with this summer going back to what is kind of to be expected, it felt really different. I know, for myself, I was kind of also expecting three months straight of heat with no water."

Residents reported weekends with unsuitable weather for planned summer activities during 2026, adding to the sense that something was off — even as conditions matched what Vancouver typically experiences. The gap between statistical normal and felt experience is its own kind of weather.