BC received less than half of its average rainfall last month, meteorologists say
Environment Canada has released BC’s climate statistics for the month of November, and things were looking drier than usual in most of the province.
While November is normally the wettest month of the year for Coastal BC, this year, many places received less than half of their average monthly rainfall, including Vancouver, which received 45% of its usual rainfall.
Environment Canada’s Matt MacDonald stated that this November, we saw 13 days of rain in Vancouver, whereas we typically see around 20, like last year.
“This was the driest November in Vancouver since 2000, when we saw only 74mm of rain,” said MacDonald in an interview with Daily Hive.
November is typically the wettest month of the year for Coastal BC. Not so in 2019! Many places received less than half of their average rainfall. We are back to our regularly programing this week ☔ #BCwx pic.twitter.com/YdCoKDOufd
— ECCC Weather British Columbia (@ECCCWeatherBC) December 2, 2019
Kamloops, Smithers, Prince George and Fort St. John, all received more rain than the month’s average, and other notably drier parts of the province include Victoria, which received 35% of its average rainfall for the month, and Nanaimo, which received 31% of its average rainfall.
“In terms of climate change, we can expect a larger percentage of our precipitation to fall in shorter more intense periods, and I think this November pattern was a good example of that type of change, in that we get these intense bursts of rain over a shorter period, and then prolonged dry spells in between those intense bursts,” said MacDonald.
For December, MacDonald says we’ve returned to regularly scheduled programming with the wet start to the month.
“There are no particularly intense storms on the horizon right now, but the week ahead there will be anywhere from 30 to 40 mm of rain across Metro Vancouver, and then we are likely get a break Sunday through perhaps Tuesday, and then back to regular onslaught of rain-making systems, which is typical for this time of year.”
Turns out that the rain, rain is going away — kind of.
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