This past weekend, after almost 2 weeks of perpetual fog, the sky finally cleared up. Yesterday, though sunny without a cloud in the sky, was cooooold! Okay, it was maybe only 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, but it felt much colder. I was standing at the bus stop out in Richmond and my feet were aching and my ears were burning. Despite wearing gloves, scarf, and a wool coat, I couldn't stop shivering.
This morning at 9am I woke up to snow! It covered the buildings, the rooftops and the parks, but the roads and sidewalks remained clear. Right now at quarter to 4, almost all of it has melted and it looks like your typical cloud-covered Vancouver winter day. Surprisingly, we really haven't had much of the famous rain this month - maybe a few days, tops.
While I didn't take any photos of today's light snowfall, I never did post the photos I took when I walked around downtown on December 17, 2008. These photos were taken at the beginning of many subsequent snowfalls which collectively became the largest snowfall ever recorded in Vancouver history. I mean, it just doesn't snow once and then melt like it normally does. It started to snow on and off in mid-December and didn't stop until January 4!
Even still, today, especially in higher altitude residential neighbourhoods (like around Shaughnessy or Point Grey), you can still see remnant snow piles on the side streets and in people's front yards. Even in low altitude Richmond (where the average altitude is below sea level!) there are piles of crusty snow lingering around in parking lots. It's pretty crazy. In all my 28 years, I've never seen snow last on the ground for this long, ever.
On that note, here's a glimpse of downtown Vancouver when the snow fell on December 17:
Fab pictures, it's great to be able to look around another city. We are expecting snow here in Norfolk UK tonight, and a deep freeze for the next couple of days.-
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Sally! I hope the snow in Norfolk didn't last too long - just long enough for it to be a novelty. :)
ReplyDelete