Today is the second day of Fall 2023. Tomorrow, as logic dictates, is the third.
We have a “special weather statement” for the third day:
I’m supposed to be running tomorrow. On the plus side, I won’t need to worry about getting a sunburn. On the negative side, getting clubbed by a laden tree branch would probably hurt a fair bit. I guess I’ll see how things look in the morning!
Yes, it is raining today and that is noteworthy, as it has been very dry. It still doesn’t feel as weird or bad as last summer, though wildfires across BC are worse. I remember last summer having a surprising number of 30C+ days, and it was super humid from start to end. This year humidity has been low or normal (possibly due to El Niño) and while it’s been warm, we’re seeing high temperatures that are only may be a degree or higher than the norm. We may have had more 30C+ days in May than in July so far (and the forecast suggests it will stay that way).
Weather is weird. And getting weirder.
Thank you for attending my mini climate change TED Talk.
It’s the first day of summer, yay!
It’s cloudy and slightly cooler than normal. Yay! It’s better than a heat dome, I guess.
However, the 10-day forecast currently1It’s still June for nine more days, so I assume nothing here has no precipitation in it. Could this be the start of our allegedly hot ‘n dry summer? Let’s find out!
Now, this is a 10-day forecast, and predicting the weather multiple days in advance can be a daring proposition in this region. But still, I can’t remember the last time I saw June start with nothing but sunshine in the forecast. And no Heat Domes™. Yet!
It’s cloudy, with a high of only 19C forecast today. What is going on?
What’s going on is after two weeks of weirdly warm summer-like weather, we are now back to normal weather for mid-May. I’m still wearing my shorts, though.
And 19C and cloudy is still perfectly pleasant. To celebrate, here are a bunch of cats enjoying the sun:
Today’s forecast high is 31C.
For May 14, which is to say, a point where we are not yet halfway through May. The normal high is 20C. As I type this at a few minutes before 10 a.m. it is already 22C. The record for today is 27C.
Arthur was right.
The Brunette River is looking more spring-like in this shot I took this afternoon. It was also 23C–the warmest it’s been so far this year, and a weird thing to experience after The Rains and the cold, horrible weather that has been April up till now.
The weather was nicer in January than it is now. And it snowed in January. April showers may bring May flowers, but no one will see them BECAUSE THEY WILL BE UNDER 2 METERS OF WATER.
And they’re still teasing this in the forecast:
Oh, I’ll be back in eight days to verify that it was actually 4C with snow showers on the 28th, believe me!
In this case, the question is: How many days until spring?
This also means we have about one more month when snow is possible, after which it becomes exceedingly unlikely through mid and late March and all but impossible by April.
Though we have had snow in April.
Also, it’s only 34 days–just over a month–until accursed Pacific Standard Time gives way to better Pacific Daylight Time. This is all to say that I’ve had my fill of winter, and bring on the warmer weather and longer days.
That is all.
For awhile now, the Windows 11 weather app (which I quite like–it covers all the basics and has a pleasing, subtle aesthetic) has been missing text for weather warnings or alerts. For example, right now I see this:
I mean, it’s nicely minimalist, but some text describing these dire-looking warnings would be handy!
(And yes, I used the Feedback app to report the issue, like a good interweb citizen.)
It started snowing yesterday around 1 p.m. and is still snowing at 10 a.m. the next day as I type this (though it is sputtering out at the moment).
I’ll update with more photos in a bit, but for now, the area has seen 20-30 cm of snow fall overnight, on top of a lot of snow already on the ground. Roads are a mess, the transit system is at a standstill, ferry sailings cancelled, flights from YVR delayed.
And it’s still not technically winter!
So instead of complaining, we drink hot chocolate, stay warm and wait for it to warm up, rain and wash it away.
We have some little lights installed outside, shining toward our unit. They are still working, deep inside a snow bank (shot through a window, so you can see my monitors reflecting:
And a short video Jeff shot on the SkyTrain this morning, before he gave up getting to work because the buses were completely absent. The trains, meanwhile, were accumulating snow…on the inside:
And some shots of the Brunette River, doing the winter wonderland thing.
Curvy snow:
Creative shovelling:
And yet here we are. Today we got another dump of snow and given the forecast (mostly clear/cloudy and very cold) it’s reasonably likely we will have some kind of White Christmas, which I was not dreaming of.
Right now, we’re in the “pretty to look at” stage.
Tomorrow it will be the “snow turns to ice after a night of sub-freezing temperatures” stage, and by the end of the week it will be “here comes the slush!” Then another week before it’s finally gone. Until the next big dump. WHICH BETTER NOT HAPPEN.
Forecast:
A picture from outside my condo, looking toward the Fraser River, which you can’t really see, but it’s there! Taken about seven or eight hours after the snow started.
