If you felt like fall came unseasonably early in the Lower Mainland, you aren’t alone.
While Metro Vancouver experienced a relatively warm, sunny August, September rain fell in buckets — and almost from the start of the month. And while Sept. 1 is considered the start of fall, meteorologically, most locals expect the month to be far drier. This year, the autumnal equinox — the astronomical start of fall – takes place today (Sept. 23).
Not only have there been many dreary, rainy days, but there have also been a number of downpours. Vancouverites witnessed an intense downpour around 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 9, which caused flash flooding in parts of the city.
What’s more, the rainfall isn’t expected to subside just yet; the forecast calls for a few wet days to come.
Vancouver Is Awesome spoke to Bobby Sekhon, a meteorologist at Environment Canada, about much how much wetter this September has been, and what we can expect for the rest of the month.
“The first week was fairly wet, but we’ve seen a great deal of variation,” he said. “With that being said, by Sept. 22, 106.8 mm of rainfall had already been recorded at YVR.”
“The average total precipitation for the month of September is 50.9 mm.”
Sekhon notes, however, this year won’t likely crack the top 10 wettest of all time. The wettest on record was nearly double what Vancouver has received thus far, with a whopping 198.6 mm recorded at YVR in 1905. Nevertheless, he says it is tracking to rank in the top 20, and possibly the top 15 wettest years.
“We expect there to be a couple more bouts of rainfall in the coming week. We can expect to see another five to ten mm, and then another round Wednesday night.”
Following this rainy period, Sekhon says that the forecast calls for a change to drier, cooler weather this weekend.
“We’ll see temperatures drop a couple of degrees this weekend, but the fall season is expected to be slightly warmer overall.”
Sekhon adds that October typically receives an average of 120 mm of rainfall during the month. As such, September has seen precipitation amounts more typical of October.
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