When my station records rain it keeps track of its continuity. If the rain does not pause for more than 3 hours then it keeps the “Rain Storm” counter going.
Since the rain started at 4AM on Sunday, March 13 we have received 101.8mm of rain. Depending on where you are around the Valley no doubt you’ve had more than I’ve recorded since the wind often blows the rain over my collector. We also had a high wind of 62kph in that time.
What’s interesting is that our highest rain rate since Sunday was only 9.4mm/hr. That’s certainly a good strong rain, but it’s nothing unusual… really nasty heavy rain is up above 15mm/hr. So what we’ve had is a good long soaking.
In the past 7 days we’ve had over 170mm.
And since March 1 we’ve had a whopping 252mm!
Bill noted in the comments that the normal for March in Port Alberni is 190mm.
We are obviously well above normal for March. We have had pretty normal temperatures for that time. And of course we had our peak wind gust on March 2 at 95kph… which is far above anything recorded for March at the official station in the “EC” database, but it’s an Apples and Oranges comparison.
Expect rain to start up again on Thursday and last most of the weekend. It’s definitely getting to be spring.
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8 responses to “Continuous rain breaks 100mm mark”
In my non-wind swept rain gauge, I’ve seen 258mm in the last 7 days, and 319mm for the month of March, which is way from 245mm last year, and 186mm for 2009. Stil have 2 weeks to go too…
I also noticed that they got the rain gauge working again at Maquinna school, and its registering roughly the same amounts I am, so life is good knowing I am that my data is consistent with what is around.
thats an incredible amount of rain in only 16 days!
Thanks Nick, those numbers certainly seem to reflect the soggy state of my lawn!
Wow, Nick, you got a few mm’s on me! But then, I have the same problem Chris does – rain being blown over the collector. And we seem to never have JUST rain, it’s always rain and wind.
What is that on the horizon? A forecast for sun, and 14C on Monday? Am I dreaming?
Excuse me all you weather experts…….what d’ya think of this West Coast Earthquake prediction, the proximity of the moon, the huge tides,etc. etc. Bought 3 flats of bottled water today. Peoples fish are dying and all that. Thoughts? I do read alberni.ca but haven’t seen Chris A. post anything, he must be in Nanaimo.
I haven’t been on alberni.ca lately Eve, and I’m certainly not an expert on anything really, but my common sense tells me that any links between all the things you mentioned are largely speculative at best.
Thanks Bill! This certainly doesn’t fall into the weather excitement category……..but intrigues me just the same. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared, and there are a few phenomenons all happening in the next couple of days. Just love all of your input. Be safe and happy all………most of all be prepared!