B.C.'s stormy November to remember — which many of us would rather forget — was No. 1 on Environment Canada's annual top 10 list of weather events, released yesterday.
In second spot were B.C.'s three December storms.
And last January's soggy dreariness, followed by the seemingly endless summer, combined to garner B.C. No. 9.
"The last month and a half has been sort of a meteorologist's dream come true," Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang enthused from her Kelowna base.
"A lot of the time, you work with very benign weather, then every once in a while there will be a real juicy storm. Meteorologists get excited about that because we don't like to do a lot thumb twiddling."
Most of us are hoping for a kinder, gentler 2007.
The Old Farmer's Almanac foresees "widespread snowfalls" in the southwest of B.C. in early- to midJanuary and mid- to late-February.
The average temperature is expected to be 0 C, one degree below average, while the precipitation is expected to be 40 millimetres below January's average of 145 mm.
"Summer will be slightly cooler than normal, on average, with the hottest periods in mid- to late-July and early August," says the annual's website prognosticator.
Although a Dec. 15 windstorm that severely damaged Stanley Park was among the storms that made No. 2 on the list, it may stand out as the single biggest weather event for British Columbians.
While successive blasts of wind lashed Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, the storm never achieved hurricane status.
A weather station at Race Rocks — in the ocean west of Victoria — recorded a gust of 157 km/h, but hurricanes are recorded only when there are sustained high winds.
Lang said hurricane-force winds — over 117 km/h — were recorded at various sites.
Still, Stanley Park won't look the same for generations to come.
"Right in behind a low-pressure system, there's an area of pressure that rises really rapidly," said Lang, explaining the factors that spawned the tempest that flattened the park.
"This little area of really strong pressure rises probably blasted through Stanley Park. It probably gained strength as it came across the [Georgia] Strait."
Lang said the attraction that B.C.'s weather holds over the nation's imagination could be chalked up to Lotuslanders' smugness.
Because of our cherry blossoms — in bloom months before the rest of the country, "The rest of Canada kind of snickers when some weather disaster happens," said Lang.
Lindsay Olson of the Insurance Bureau of Canada said the nine storms that have battered B.C. since Nov. 1 caused $80 million of insured damage — still far less than the $200-million Kelowna fires of 2003 or Quebec's $1.2-billion ice storm of 1998.
Elisha Moreno of B.C. Hydro said: "The number of storms that came at us in a row and the ferocity of those storms were simply unprecedented.
"In terms of damage to our system, it was immense."
An army of 800 power-line technicians and tree toppers worked 16hour shifts for days until the system was back up, said Moreno.
She said the outpouring of kindness many customers showered on the crews getting the power back on was heart-warming.
aivens@png.canwest.com
 

1.   B.C. Weather Woes Part I: So Much Rain, So Little Water

It was a wicked November across British Columbia! The coast was hit often and hard with drenching rains, strong winds and high tides. At mid-month, provincial emergency workers were summoned at 4:00 a.m. to deal with a tsunami warning on the West Coast, while the end of the month was marked by heavy snows and bitter cold. Refueled by subtropical (feeds?) from Hawaii, the storms came onshore day-after-day dropping their wet cargoes on the "wet" coast. The huge storm on November 5-6, dubbed the Pineapple Express, was associated with the remnants of Typhoon Cimaron, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines in eight years. What was especially unusual was not the frequency of the storms but the intensity of the rainfalls. In some instances, 10 to 15 mm of rain per hour fell for 15 consecutive hours, creating a huge potential for flooding. There was no doubting the tropical origins of the air mass as temperatures hit a record high of 17°C.

The storm dumped its heaviest load on Chilliwack swelling already brimming rivers. The Chilliwack River was roughly 20 times its normal flow. Every river in the Lower Mainland, the south coast and the southern half of Vancouver Island rose close to or above flood stage - water levels expected only once in 50 years. Intense rains triggered mudslides, washouts and flooding. In turn, highways closed and hundreds of residents along the Chilliwack River had to evacuate their homes. Five days later another storm battered the coast with more rains and strong winds, leading to what was becoming a common occurrence: cancelled BC ferry sailings, grounded aircraft and power outages.

None of the November tempests had the impact of the storm on November 15 - the worst in two years, according to BC Hydro. Before noon, the storm had blocked seven provincial highways, toppled power lines leaving an estimated 200,000 in eight communities without electricity and collapsed a steel-framed building under construction in East Vancouver. Remarkably, there were no serious injuries. In the watersheds around Vancouver, rainfalls in excess of 150 mm in 15 hours soaked already waterlogged soils. Because dozens of the landslides muddied the water in three Vancouver reservoirs, turbidity levels in the water treatment system rose 30 times the target causing drinking water that had never been cloudier. Consequently, two million residents in Canada's third largest city were advised to boil their water, the widest water warning in Canadian history. With an increased risk of bacteria and viruses in the water supply, health officials declared tap water unsafe for drinking, brushing teeth or washing fruits and vegetables. The advisory was partially lifted the next day, but it remained in effect for nearly a million residents in parts of Vancouver, Burnaby and the North Shore for another 10 days. On November 19, another Pacific storm brought an additional 60 to 90 mm of rain and strong winds to coastal British Columbia.

But just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it did! A series of snowstorms on November 25 blanketed the southwest with record snowfalls over six days and a cold Arctic outflow dropped temperatures to –12°C in Vancouver. The biggest storm dropped 40 to 60 cm of snow in the eastern Fraser Valley. Abbotsford Airport broke its one-day snowfall record for November with 44.1 cm of the white stuff. Downed trees and snapped snow-laden branches left thousands without power.

In the final wrap up, November rainfall and snowfall totals at British Columbia's two largest cities were impressive. Snowfall at Vancouver International Airport amounted to 38.6 cm. Victoria had six days of snow with two back-to-back 15+cm days. Its monthly accumulation of 40 cm was the second greatest November total in 66 years of weather record-keeping and 91 per cent of an average year's accumulation.

With 350.8 mm of rain and snowmelt in November, Vancouver tied the record for the wettest November and the wettest month ever set in November 1983. Remarkably, in 2006, Vancouver set two new monthly precipitation records: one in January (283.6 mm) and another in November (350.8 mm). Victoria was even wetter in November! Its monthly total of 351.9 mm surpassed the total for the previous wettest month of 342.6 mm recorded in January 1953.

2.   B.C. Weather Woes Part II: A December to Remember in BC

Residents of Vancouver Island and BC's Lower Mainland were reeling following one of the most powerful storms in history on December 15. It was the third blast in five days with all storms packing wind gusts well in excess of 100 km/h. The three storms lined up off the coast at the beginning of the week and - one after another - headed due east one day apart for Vancouver Island and BC's Lower Mainland. Three powerful storms in less than a week are bad enough, but to have them strike the same location straight-on is unprecedented. Some questioned El Nino or global warming but it was more likely just plain old bad luck.

The storm on December 11 lacked the rains of November, but its bluster crippled an already fragile power grid. Wind gusts were 96 km/h strong, enough to blow over two planes at the Victoria Airport. Anything not fixed or tied down became airborne. On December 13, another powerful storm with hurricane-force winds once again walloped the southwest. It brought down more trees and power lines - some repaired only a day before. BC Hydro called for reinforcements from Alberta and Yukon to relieve workers who had been putting in 16-hour days non-stop for three and a half weeks.

The third blast on December 15 produced the biggest punch and proved to be the worst of the season, surpassing the others in intensity and in the number of blackouts. In the early morning, winds shattered speed records as they howled in from the Pacific, toppling groves of trees seeded two centuries ago. The storm's destructive power was compared to that of Typhoon Freda in 1962. Winds topped 124 km/h in Victoria. At Race Rocks in the Juan de Fuca, winds hit 157 km/h prompting hurricane-force wind warnings.

At the peak of the storm, a record quarter of a million customers lost power. Several thousands had to go days before power and telephone service were restored. Hydro veterans could not remember a more devastating storm as they struggled to keep a strained electrical grid from total collapse. B.C. emergency personal described the weather as the most destructive storm event for hydro and telephone infrastructure in the province's history. Stanley Park was closed for days after thousands of trees were felled by the high winds. Over $100 million in property losses made it the most damaging and expensive windstorm in recent memory. People were calling it B.C.'s "Ice Storm". At Whistler, about 60 cm of snow fell in 24 hours, causing hundreds of motorists to be stranded on the Sea-to-Sky highway for 14 hours. Some people abandoned their vehicles and walked the few kilometres into Whistler through waist-deep snow.

Already this year about one million BC customers have lost their power, mostly because of the weather. The end of the year is usually stormy along the BC Coast, but the ferocity and the frequency of the storms this year is unprecedented. Since the beginning of November, nine storms have punished the coast - three times what is usual.