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Vancouver has seen its longest run of wet weather in more than 50 years

We’re on our 28th consecutive day with precipitation
rain record
Vancouver has seen its longest stretch of wet weather in more than 50 years. File photo Dan Toulgoet

Vancouver has seen its 28th consecutive day with precipitation which makes this the longest run in over 50 years. 

While Vancouver has seen some brief moments of sunshine, there has been at least a trace amount of precipitation each day over the last 28 days. At other times, the city has seen a staggering amount of rain or snow accumulate in a matter of hours or days, including 34 centimetres of snowfall in five days in January. 

Last month, January only saw one dry day. And, as of 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 31, Vancouver had received 245 millimetres of rainfall, more than 55 per cent more than the historical average. An average January receives 158 millimetres of rain.

Thursday morning, Rolf Campbell, the person behind the Vancouver Weather Records twitter account (@YVR_Weather), tweeted that the city has seen its longest run in more than 50 years, since Dec. 19, 1966. This makes it the eleventh longest run of precipitation of all time. 

Vancouver had 22 consecutive days in January with precipitation. According to @YVR_Weather, this put the January run in fifth place for the longest run of precipitation in January. 

Environment Canada is calling for rain until Saturday, but Sunday is expected to clear. This means that the city has the potential to set an even longer record, with the tenth longest record sitting at 29 consecutive days with precipitation. Following that, the ninth and eighth are 30 and 31 days, respectively. 

The longest streak to date was 46 consecutive days with precipitation from Jan. 1 to Feb. 15, 1952.

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