Metro Vancouver getting wetter, report shows
Rainfall has increased by 20% in the last 70 years
Hotter nights in August and wetter days in the spring and fall have become the norm for Metro Vancouver according to a report commissioned by the regional district. The report is based on the ClimateBC model and different climate scenarios.
Based on a study of 70 years worth of data from the Vancouver International Airport weather station, the average annual rainfall has risen by 20 per cent since the 1930s, when it averaged around 1,000 millimetres. It’s been a gradual increase, reaching a zenith of 1,500 millimetres in the late 1990s, dipping shortly into the new millennium and now heading for a new peak.
“Part of the problem is not the amount of rain, but how it’s been coming down – not in a steady drizzle, but in intense bursts, as Vancouverites have seen this spring as the weather alternates between dry sunny days and stormy deluges. For the past two 
decades, climate scientists have been reporting an increasing trend toward high-intensity rainstorms in southwestern B.C.,” wrote Frances Bula in an article published in the Globe and Maill,
To Learn More:
To read a story by Kelly Sinoski as published in the Vancouver Sun newspaper, click here.
To read an article by Frances Bula as published in the Globe & Mail newspaper, click here
To download a copy of the December 2008 report by Whiting and Lai, click on Climate Variable Mapping and Agriculture – Metro Vancouver.
Posted May 2009