More on rain! (Vancouver, Pacific: houses, calculating, camp)

[slsl6]

I've been keeping my eye on the daily weather in Vancouver (I don't want to beleaguer the point, but it's of vital importance to me in terms of living here), and I see quite a bit of actual steady rain this winter, as opposed to mist or drizzle. Gray skies, mist, and drizzle don't bother me, but a constant rain of an inch or more is intolerable.

Not being there, it's hard to judge, of course. Any comments would be welcome.

[NCDavid]

If statistics would help you:
When there is precipitation in Vancouver, there is a 62 percent probability that it will be light rain.
25 percent chance it will be moderate rain. Only a 6 percent chance it will be heavy rain. 3 percent chance it will be a thunderstorm, and 3 percent chance it will be light snow.
The heaviest months of precipitation are November 6.5 inches average, December 6.42 inches, and January 5.91 inches.
From November to March, there is a 65 percent probability that any given day will have some precipitation, versus only 14 percent chance in July and August.
I guess it depends on your definition of constant or heavy rain. To me, 6 inches total rain over the course of a month is pretty light rain. I lived for a while in NC and travelled to Florida where a thunderstorm could drop that much in 12 hours. To me, that's heavy rain.
However, as noted above, over the winter there is a high probability or some rain two out of every three days. Seldom do I see a day with an inch or more of rain.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by NCDavid

If statistics would help you:
When there is precipitation in Vancouver, there is a 62 percent probability that it will be light rain.
25 percent chance it will be moderate rain. Only a 6 percent chance it will be heavy rain. 3 percent chance it will be a thunderstorm, and 3 percent chance it will be light snow.

6% chance precip will involve snow or t-storm? Those both seem on the high end.

[NCDavid]

Originally Posted by bler144

6% chance precip will involve snow or t-storm? Those both seem on the high end.

Those percentages may 'seem' high but those are the historical odds from the weather service.

[slsl6]

That's great info! But 6+ inches of rain a month is a lot, although I'm sure a good deal of it is in the form of mist or drizzle.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by slsl6

That's great info! But 6+ inches of rain a month is a lot, although I'm sure a good deal of it is in the form of mist or drizzle.

thunderstorms are very rare (3-4 in the last 30 yrs that I remember).

There are some pretty good downpours in Nov and April, Few inches / day. Minimal lightning

usually it is drizzle / light rain (nearly everyday). Not enough to required an umbrella, but enough to make you cold and miserable. (If you are that type). Interesting to PNW that daylight brings rainfall, where in many climates it rains during the light. You can get up at 4:30 AM and spray $500 worth of 'anti-fungus' products on your your orchard, and by 9 AM it will be washed off by rain.

Everything is done in the light rain ... golfing, mowing the grass, gardening, fixing cars, building houses, hiking, walking the dog...

Aug is the good month to paint your house, fix your roof, get rid of moss, cut firewood ... and a thousand other things that most people have 9 months to accomplish.. It is also the best month to camp / hike / picnic / pick wild berries, fish salmon / steelhead...

Thus... RENT, don't OWN if you value your free time

[bler144]

Originally Posted by NCDavid

Those percentages may 'seem' high but those are the historical odds from the weather service.

Oh, I'm not doubting that you're citing them correctly, I'm just wondering how they're calculating to possibly reach those figures.

Arguably, if you treated "3 days of drizzle" as one event, and a 5 min thunderstorm as one event, then I suppose you could maybe get that calculation to spit out. Will it be thundering 3% of the time it's precipitating (which is on its face what the presentation of the data suggests, no?)?

Not likely. You might get 30 minutes of thunder all year, whereas you'll get far more than 16 hours of precipitation.

Though anecdotally, it does seem that we get more thunder now than we used to in the PNW.

[NCDavid]

Originally Posted by slsl6

That's great info! But 6+ inches of rain a month is a lot, although I'm sure a good deal of it is in the form of mist or drizzle.

Well, I guess that depends on your expectations. According to weather statistics, Vancouver gets an average of about 42 inches of rain a year, very near the average of all U.S. cities. In comparison, according to NOAA, Atlanta gets 50 inches; Birmingham AL 54; Charlotte NC 42; Houston 50; Miami 62 inches; New Orleans 63, New York City 50 inches.
If 6 inches in a month seems like too much rain for you, you might be better off in Arizona, or maybe Los Angeles where they get 13 inches for the entire year.
Yes, it's the gray skies and drizzle in the Pacific Northwest that bother some people, not the volume of rain.

[silibran]

You know, if you don't want to live with rain for nine months of the year, I would pull the state of WA out of contention for yourself.

It doesn't seem too rainy here for me, so far, but yes it does rain. We got heavy rain a few days ago, and then not much and even some sun. But I don't think this is typical. You can expect lots of rain here, although not that many gullywashers. But it sounds as if this is a big thing to you. I suspect you would be unhappy in the PNW.