28 record days of rain in November — but sun’s on the way
Greater Victoria is emerging from a rainy November to a blast of sunshine in the first part of December.
“Out of the 30 days in November, there were only two dry days,” said Matt MacDonald, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “We had 28 days with rain — that is actually recordbreaking for November.
“The normal amount of days with rain in November is 19.”
But the almost-daily precipitation didn’t translate into a record amount of rain, with 189 millimetres recorded at Victoria International Airport, well below the 351.9 mm that fell in 2006. The norm at that station is 152.6 mm.
The amount of rain recorded at different locations in the region can vary widely. At the Gonzales station, 98.2 mm of precipitation was recorded in November.
Those looking for something other than rain are going to be pleased in the coming days, MacDonald said.
“In fact, the sun’s going to come out on Sunday and it’s going to last, believe or not, for an entire week,” he said. “Monday might be a bit of a cloudy day, but after that, it should be sunny all the way to Saturday.”
Similar conditions are expected throughout the southern half of the province.
That being said, sunshine this time of year often brings fog, MacDonald said.
Daytime temperatures will be around normal, in the range of 7-8 C, during the sunny spell, but likely will dip below zero overnight.
“So be on the lookout for black ice and keep those scrapers and that salt handy,” MacDonald said.
He said he is looking forward to the change in weather.
“This is our rainy season,” he said. “November is actually the rainiest month of the year, it’s the worst one.”
Next up is January, with December in third place.
“I always tell people if you can make it through to February, you’ll survive because then the rainfall drops almost in half,” MacDonald said.
Precipitation is expected to return around Dec. 10, but snow isn’t anticipated any time soon.
“Right now it just looks like rain,” MacDonald said. “I don’t see a snow-making pattern for a while.”
Looking ahead to the prospect of a white Christmas, he said that climatological statistics put Victoria’s and Vancouver’s chances at just 15 per cent. “Some places, like Whitehorse, it’s a slam dunk, it’s 100 per cent, guaranteed, same as Yellowknife.”
Odds of a white Christmas are 35 per cent in Toronto, 65 per cent in Montreal and 95 per cent in Winnipeg.