I just popped over to the Weather Network web site for the 14-day outlook. That takes us into the first days of July. Fourteen days, eleven of them supposed to be rainy. Just three days with no rain, two of them supposed to be overcast, the other partly sunny.
Their graph has this bar that marks the seasonal average high temperature. At this time of the year that's supposed to be around 21C. I've been studying that closely for weeks now waiting for that magical day when the forecast high will kiss, maybe even break through what's supposed to be the average high. Not even close except for one day, maybe two. Looks like I'll just have to keep waiting until later in July.
My brother is coming to visit from Ontario in early July. I called him the other day after consulting the Weather Network's chart for his hometown. I told him how remarkable it was that our forecast high temperatures very closely paralleled his region's daily lows and suggested he be sure to pack a sweater and a jacket for his visit.
We had a family and friends get together on Saturday and the conversation inevitably turned to our absentee summer and how, last year, summer weather didn't arrive until well into August. The consensus seemed to be we were heading for a repeat of 2011. It was pretty gloomy until we began talking about what's going on everywhere else in the world. Rather abruptly the conversation shifted to everything we don't get.
We don't get megadroughts. We don't get floods either. We don't get cyclical floods and droughts. We don't get extreme heat waves nor do we endure extreme cold snaps. We don't get smog warnings either. We don't need much heating in the winter and we don't need air conditioning in the summer. None of my neighbours has central air or even one of those window air conditioners. When, if, summer shows up, we'll just open our windows in late afternoon and let the nearby ocean work its magic.
Before the conversation moved on to sports or politics or cooking or whatever we had one of those moments where everyone agrees on something. We all nodded in agreement that, for all of the dreariness, we really have it made.
3 comments:
Living on Vancouver Island means never having to say you're Surrey...or Vancouver for that matter...seems to rain just about twice as much there. I'm guessing because of the mountains, which First Nations people call "cloud catchers"...
It doesn't stop us from grousing though, as crops over here are of greatest importance..and we have been a bit sun-deprived as of late.
What I find particularly annoying is that all the different weather forecasters seem to be totally inaccurate most of the time, and most especially when the forecast is one covered by the taxpayer, this can be really crazy-making.
Still, when all is considered, we are pretty spoilt, and I for one am very thankful for the Northwest Coast beauty that I awake to every morning, rain, snow or shine...it could be infinitely worse....
This post was sent to me by my mom who lives in NS. I have been seriously complaining about our rainy weather... I guess she's reminding me to count my blessings! LOL
@ Miz. If you're finding the island drier than, say, Vancouver, you must be parked in the south, Victoria. Head up island, Campbell River and north, and you'll find a different world all together. It's pretty much the same story on the west coast, Tofino, Uclulet, Thasis, Port Alice.
@ Lisa. Yes I'm sure your mom is right. Canadians really do need to count our blessings. Canada is one of a handful of countries that have real advantages for facing the approaching impacts of climate change. The trick is to acknowledge those advantages and move to utilize them in a timely way before they begin slipping through our fingers. We have the ability to leave Canada a better or a far worse place for future generations depending on what we do in the next few years.
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