Did this January feel even gloomier than usual? That’s probably because it was.
January 2020 was significantly wetter than normal, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Alyssa Charbonneau. And it closed with a bang — Friday was the wettest January 31 on record.
According to climate data, 34.8 millimetres of rain fell in Vancouver Friday, smashing the previous daily record of 27.2 millimetres set in 1907.
“It was definitely a really wet end to the month,” Charbonneau said.
As for total precipitation last month, January 2020 fell short of claiming the top spot. With 256.6 millimetres of precipitation, this was Vancouver’s fifth rainiest January on record. But given that average January precipitation is 168.4 millimetres, it was still a lot of rain.
Abbotsford got even more precipitation than Vancouver, and this year was its third-wettest January on record.
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Charbonneau explained that Vancouver tends to get large-scale weather systems that move off the Pacific Ocean in the winter. Some storms tap into subtropical moisture and give Vancouver the “atmospheric river” event we saw this week, she added.
Vancouver has a very short sunny break coming on Monday, before we see more rain, Charbonneau said. Temperatures in the first week of February will also get cooler than what we’ve seen the past few days.
Vancouver forecast/Environment Canada
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