Life in BC

Experiencing this level of snowfall in Victoria is pretty unusual. CTV News reports thus:

“After another 23 centimetres fell on B.C.’s capital Monday in a coastal snowstorm, Environment Canada confirmed the region has seen more snow this month than any February since records began in 1941.”

Even on our little plot I can attest that the snow levels are up to the top of one’s Hunter wellies (and sometimes beyond) – in places drifting several feet and more deep!

Now, inhabitants of other parts of Canada – some of them not very far away – have a jolly good laugh at Victoria’s expense when it comes to the City’s inability to process even mild amounts of snowfall. Boy, are they chuckling now! We would naturally point out that we have plenty of other things on which to waste our tax dollars rather than investing in expensive snow-clearing machinery that would sit idle in its garage four years out of every five.

No matter.

These photos show how the snow built up over the last few days:

I am trying to keep up a constant supply of unfrozen nectar for these little fellers:

The good ship ‘Dignity‘ handles well in most weathers, but this goes well beyond her design capabilities:

Turns out that – following my last post on the subject of Arctic Outflows – there is much more to say on the subject of the weather. The ‘event‘ (meaning as far as I can tell ‘stuff out of the ordinary‘) referred to in that post is still ongoing, but here is the tale thus far.

On Friday we had our first dusting of snow – merely a taster as it turned out – and the first day of high winds. The forecast for the weekend promised more serious snow to come and The Girl advised me (to no resistance at all on my part) that I should try to get the snow tyres fitted to the Lexus. This I duly did and it turned out to be a really smart move.

On the Saturday our power was out for a couple of hours in the morning but we were – as so often – amongst the lucky ones; others lost power for more than twenty four hours!

Come Sunday afternoon the serious snow set in and everything started to disappear under a proper blanket of white. Another snow storm swept across Greater Victoria on Monday and a third this morning (Tuesday). The forecast looks more promising for the second part of the week, but there is a lot of snow on the ground (and on everything else) which I can’t see disappearing any time soon.

So – here are a whole bunch of snow pictures. We don’t get that much of it here so it is a source of serious fascination.

Back in the good old UK understanding the weather used to be straightforward… or at least so it seemed when ‘I were a nipper’. It rained (a lot) or the sun shone (no – honestly, it did!). The most technically complex weather situation with which one might be faced was an Occluded Front – and no-one bar the swotty people even pretended to know what one of those was.

But here I am – new continent – new weather! And at this time of life too…

So – over ‘t’other side’ of the nation there was recently a lot of snowy unpleasantness caused by a Polar Vortex. When that (whatever it might be) trundled away to the west (towards us, in other words) we were apparently to be subjected to an Arctic Outflow. I guess we do things differently on this coast.

Anyway – it turns out that this meant a whole shed-load of snow, followed by a couple of days of violent winds from the north. Hmmm! Nasty!

This is what it looked like:

The good ship ‘Dignity‘ was happy to be safely tucked away down the side of our house…

…and with the forecast for the next week or so suggesting more of the same it seemed to be a good idea to get the winter tyres re-installed on the Lexus.

Apparently they like a bit of an outing once a year!