[Paddlewise] Canadian weather

As some may remember from my post last winter, I am tentatively planning a
long west coast of Vancouver Island trip for next summer.  I achieved
some, but not all, of my preparative goals last summer, and feel that I am
OK on most fronts if I can keep the tendonitis at bay.  

My main concern at the moment is the weather.  The week I was in Kyuquot
sound (end of May), was a little worse than we hoped, but one week is a
pretty small sample.  My previous experience with the island's west coast
is limited to a couple of trips to Barkeley Sound.

However, I tried to check the Environment Canada web site at least every
couple of days for the rest of the summer for forecasts and wind reports,
and it seemed that the frequency of marginal or worse conditions,
particularly in Vancouver Island North, was quite a bit higher than I had
been lead to believe (by Douglass _Exploring Vancouver Island's West
Coast_, and maybe other sources that don't come to mind now).  We had an
unusually crappy summer in Seattle, so I am hoping to get first hand
accounts from people closer to the area regarding whether this was an
unusually bad year, or my previous scenario was unrealisticly rosy, or I
am selectively remembering only the bad forecasts and windy days. (I'm
pretty sure the last is not the case.)

Any long-term local knowledge of the area's weather (May to September),
the quality of forecasting (I recall that Doug Lloyd has some ideas on
this) and the relavance of the reported stations to paddling routes,
global climate change, sun spots and related subjects would be of great
interest (at least to me!)

Mike Wagenbach
Missing some dry Colorado snow and cold blue skies, but only for 5
more days!

P.S to Dennis:  Let me know if my message made it to you.

The problem with expert advice is that it so often conflicts with one's
plans.
                                      -author unknown

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