B.C. November wetter than usual
Plenty of rain, but falling far short of the record
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 9:22 PM PT
CBC News
A typical November street scene in southwestern B.C., this from Vancouver Island. (CBC)November is living up to its reputation as B.C.'s wettest month in the calendar year.
Heavy rains flooded some communities on southern Vancouver Island and swamped the southwest mainland in the past week, and more wet weather is forecast for the week to come.
It is not shaping up as a record-setting 30 days but the level of precipitation is above normal.
"Currently at the airport we are up to 170 millimetres of rain," said Environment Canada meteorologist Chris Emond told CBC News.
"Typically for a November we would have 179 millimetres. We are definitely on track for an above-normal month."
That's still considerably shy of the record set in 2006 when 350 mm of rain deluged the Lower Mainland.
The November weather pattern is caused by mild wet air from the southwest colliding with cooler systems rolling in off the Pacific Ocean from the northwest.
Change coming but not yet
That should change in December, Emond said.
"We can expect to see some outflow patterns where cold air reaches the coast from the Interior, and then when we get the moisture from the Pacific moving over that."
That would create the conditions for snow, Emond said.
But before that, a series of rainstorms if forecast to roll over southwestern B.C., with brief dry breaks between them
"Keep your umbrella handy," Emond advised.
