When talking about weather, some Vancouverites want more focus on climate change

The streak of unusually hot, sunny weather in Metro Vancouver has some people happily hitting the beach.

For others, the daily reports of warm weather are a major worry.

In a province that faces dramatic floods and fires, climate change is shifting perceptions on how the weather should be reported.

Some British Columbians argue clear skies and unseasonably hot temperatures shouldn't be described as "nice weather" and the bias against rain needs to go, too.

"You have a great opportunity right now to make a difference and change the way people think about climate change," CBC The Early Edition listener Steve Britten said in an e-mailed response to an interview with Environment Canada this week.

"Each weather forecast should be based on the deviation from the average, so that listeners are reminded of the dangers of warmer weather."

'Highly variable'

Friday in Metro Vancouver, for example, was another clear, sunny day after two weeks without a drop of rain.  

Vancouver International Airport was projected to reach 22 C on Friday, according to Environment Canada — between six to seven degrees higher than the seasonal average. Squamish was expected to hit 28 C, when the average high is around 18 C. 

Facts and statistics like these can sound quite dramatic, but they don't always tell the full story.

"We've been seeing very dry and warm conditions across Vancouver for the past couple of weeks," said Brett Soderholm, CBC Vancouver's meteorologist and science specialist.

"However, if you look back a few years, we had almost the exact opposite effect. So it's just worth mentioning that these things do change and it's highly variable from one year to the next."

Some organizations, like U.K.-based The Guardian newspaper, now report global carbon dioxide levels on a daily basis as a way to acknowledge climate change in their weather reporting.

Seth Wynes, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia who's studying climate change mitigation, said emissions levels are "the most obvious" thing to highlight, but again, don't tell the entire story. 

"It's going to keep going up, and so that might be a little bit of a depressing thing that's out of sync with our actions," he told CBC's Jake Costello.

"It might be more useful to focus on some of the positive changes."

But not everyone agrees that weather reporters should stop proclaiming "It's a nice day out" altogether whenever the sun appears.

"I would be disappointed… I don't want [weather broadcasts] to be robotic," said David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

"I know that journalism and meteorologists today guard very much against trying to put their preferences into the forecast.

"But you can't help if you've got a long weekend coming up and it's three dry days."