It's just one of those Mondays...

...a KatKam time-lapse of a Vancouver monsoon. 15 minutes of torrential downpour, then sun! Then downpour. Then sun! Repeat. /end








p.s. Thanks KatKam! I love you.

Another rainy night...

November Rain

November + Vancouver = Rain

If you're looking for the bleakest, gloomiest, rainiest time to be in Vancouver, drop by for a visit in November. The stats don't lie!



Source: http://www.citystats.ca/city/British-Columbia/Vancouver.html#climate


While we've been having cold temperatures, rain, and overcast skies for the last few days now, this upcoming week is supposed to be particularly brutal in terms of wind and rainfall. Just talking to my Mom on the phone, she said the news is forecasting more rain this week than we've had in the entire month. And when November's the rainiest month out of the entire year, you know it's serious.

Here's the forecast according to Environment Canada:

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/bc-74_metric_e.html

Note the "rainfall warning" and "wind warning" - a clue that the weather's expected to be pretty hairy this week!

What's the weather like in Vancouver right now?

I know I must seem completely obsessive about weather, but it's a Canadian trait I can't seem to shake. And when you work on the phone with Americans each day and they hear you're from Canada, it's almost always the first thing they ask about. "Oh, wow, Canada! What's the weather like there right now? By the way, I've been to Niagara Falls. What a great country you have there. Clean cities. Friendly people."

But when people discover you're in Vancouver - whether they're American, Canadian, or otherwise - if they know anything about the city at all, all they know is that it always rains in Vancouver.

Evidently, this is not always the case.

But as we move further into the year away from March, the rainfall plummets and we get (surprise, surprise), days, if not weeks of sunshine from May until October. I know "weeks of sunshine" must sound funny for people in sunny climates, but so many people actually believe that "it always rains in Vancouver" when this is not the case at all.

We've been having a hot spell in Vancouver with almost humid-like conditions. We've been having weeks of sunshine that they're starting to implement fire bans in the parks as to prevent forest fires. If this situation continues, we're surely going to be in for an early drought season.

So for those wondering "what's the weather going to be like in Vancouver?" evidently, the day to day weather patterns truly vary, so there's no real way to know. Advanced weather forecasts aren't to be trusted. Best guesses are all that we can offer.

Saying that, a quick Google search for "Vancouver weather" brings you the current temperature with the week's forecast, and it's usually accurate. Of course, a visit to Environment Canada is even better.

But if you really want to know what the weather is *right now* real time, I always like to recommend KatKam.

And for those who truly believe it always rains in Vancouver, from a sweltering, sunny, hot and almost-humid Vancouver, I say "nyah nyah". ;)

The tail end of cherry blossom season

The last of the cherry blossoms - Davie Street, Yaletown

Last night around 9pm (almost serendipitously timed to the Canucks loss), there was a sudden and intense storm with hurricane-like winds blowing sheets of rain down the city streets. The surface of the roads turned to rivers in an instant.

We stood in the solarium and watched waterfalls spill down our windows. Those out on the town, unfortunate enough to be caught outside, could be heard shrieking as they ran for cover.

Now this kind of weather is not out of place if it were November, but you typically don't get that kind of intensity here in the spring. You get that in Texas or Montreal or Alberta, not coastal BC. Climate change strikes again.

After brunch this afternoon we ran into our friend Patrick who also commented on the strangeness of last night's event. He said he was watching the storm from his balcony, and moments before the rain fell, he was admiring the blossoms swirl up and through the streets, like the plastic bag dancing through the air in American Beauty.

While most of Vancouver's cherry trees lost their blossoms weeks ago, there's still one late blooming species with puff-ball like blossoms which still cling to their branches. I decided to see how they fared after last night's storm, and surprisingly, it was a lot better than I had anticipated. But as these final cherry blossoms fall, it signifies the tail end of cherry blossom season as we approach that ambiguous boundary between spring and summer in Vancouver.

First rainfall in a long time

Clouds over the Granville Street Bridge, January 2003
Apparently talking about the weather is a very Canadian trait. We're obsessed with it, and why not? Part of the Canadian lifestyle is the inherent ability to adapt our lives around the ever-changing weather. As a result, casual banter with strangers almost always involves the topic. It's why my posts on this blog to you dear reader, tend to focus a little too much on the weather.

But you see, when we get to February on the west coast, you never quite know when spring is going to start, but you do know that it could happen any day. So while February may well be the coldest month in Montreal or Chicago, it's actually the end of our winter here on the Pacific coast. We begin to realize that we can put away our winter coats, our gloves and our scarves. We start to wear our lighter jackets. The daylight regime helps too - it stays light out until at least 6pm these days and the sun now rises at 7am.

So where was I going with this? Well, it rained late last night for the first time in weeks. That's right - it actually rained in Vancouver! It kept raining from around midnight until this morning, falling gently until... oh... 11am? Noon? That's when it stopped.

But it's now 3:30pm, and the sun is shining. It's 9 degree Celsius (48 Fahrenheit). This is a typical February day in Vancouver. The nay-sayers like to talk about the endless winter rains, but honestly? Vancouver's rain is overrated.

People like to over exaggerate Vancouver's rain, to make it sound more dramatic than it really is. People like to say it rains non-stop for months or that it's a rainy place 12 months a year. And then you have people who actually believe them.

The reality is that the rain is seasonal - it starts in late autumn, typically by November, and it lasts until spring. But by spring, people mean March/April. As you get away from the rainiest months of the year (November, December, and January), the amount of rainfall actually drops off significantly until you get until July, August and September which are so dry, we experience drought (and the city enforces strict water regulations).

And with the winter rain, it's so sporadic. You might get a low front with expansive grey clouds hovering over the city, similar to the photo I took above. And those clouds might hover over the city for a week at a time... but it might only truly rain for a few hours total for that week.

While we do get the occasional day-long rainfall, they're never thundershowers or monsoons. More often than not, it's a very gentle rain - the kind where you're not sure if using an umbrella is even worthwhile.

But enough on the rain right now! I'll make a future post with actual climate statistics, although this Wikipedia article paints an accurate picture.

Edit: It's 6:30pm, the Academy Awards are on TV, and the rain has started again.