Vancouver's wet year offers no relief elsewhere in B.C. as drought persists

A man sits under an umbrella on a dock while fishing for perch and whitefish on the Fraser River as rain falls, in Richmond, B.C., Monday, July 24, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Vancouver lived up to its soggy reputation in 2024, the city's wettest year so far this century, but an Environment Canada meteorologist says that a "multi-year" drought persists in other parts of British Columbia.

Meteorologist Chris Doyle said data showed more than 1,367 millimetres of precipitation at Vancouver International Airport last year, the most since 1999 when 1,394 millimetres fell.

But Doyle said the drenching boosted by a series of atmospheric river events and other storms along the B.C. coast did not translate to drought relief elsewhere in the province.

"People living in Vancouver might think, 'You know, it's kind of a wet year,' but it's not a wet year everywhere," he said.

"Basically, it's a story of warmth for basically all of the south coast, essentially coastal British Columbia, and the southern Interior and the southeast … in terms of precipitation, it was a normal to somewhat drier year."

Environment Canada data show a number of communities approaching annual records for warmth and dryness, with 2024 among the top-five warmest years in Kelowna, Vernon, Williams Lake and Kamloops.

Drier conditions, meanwhile, were more severe in northeastern B.C., where Chetwynd reported its sixth driest year on record and Fort Nelson its fifth driest.

Fort Nelson and surrounding areas were the epicentre for wildfire activity in B.C. earlier in 2024. About 4,700 people were ordered to evacuate for more than two weeks in May due to one blaze pushing to within a few kilometres of the townsite.

"It's fair to say that northeastern British Columbia is in a prolonged, multi-year drought," Doyle said. "The fire situation was bad in the summer of 2022, not much better in the summer of 2023, and maybe the only saving grace is that fire risk will go down in the future because there are just fewer trees to burn."

The situation is much different in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, where Doyle said 2024's precipitation was about 15 per cent more than the annual average of about 1,189 millimetres.

That still keeps 2024 "within the normal range" of rain seen in Vancouver.

"I think it's safe to say that (2024) was a rainier-than-average year, and may have seemed rainier certainly over the last month because we had so many days with precipitation," Doyle said.

Records at Vancouver International Airport have been kept since 1937, but Doyle said some historic climate statistics may be unreliable due to possible data corruption.

The most reliable rainfall record for the airport weather station was set in 1997 when 1,521 millimetres fell there, Doyle said.

"The rainfall in 1997 was substantially higher than what we received this year, an extra 150-millimetres-plus more," he said. "So (2024) is not near-record wet. It's just kind of on the wet side."

The statistics also show 2024 was the 10th warmest on record for Vancouver.

Doyle said a key reason for the higher-than-average rainfall last year was an "enhanced East Asian jet stream" across the Pacific Ocean that persisted for weeks.

In October, an atmospheric river weather system dumped hundreds of millimetres of rain on parts of British Columbia, prompting North Vancouver to declare a state of local emergency.

The stormy weather along the B.C. coast this winter also included a bomb cyclone in November that knocked out power to more than 300,000 properties.

Longer-term forecasts do not show much change for either the south or the north of the province, with current projections showing warm winters in southern and coastal B.C. and "near-average" conditions in the north and the northeast.

Doyle said that does not bode well for the alleviation of drought conditions in northeastern B.C.

"Keep in mind that the northeast probably needs a prolonged wet period to improve long-term drought conditions, and that's not showing up through the winter," he said.

"And if we look a little bit further ahead, temperature for the spring — sort of April, May, June — our models are forecasting essentially a near-average condition for the entire province."

B.C.'s River Forecast Centre said in May last year that persistent drought conditions in the province stretch back to 2022 with "multi-year" precipitation deficits, and satellite images showed many rivers in the Interior running narrower and shallower at the time when compared to 2023 levels.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.