December was warmer, wetter than usual on B.C.’s South Coast, Environment Canada says

A sign warning of the potential for coastal flooding is seen in Vancouver's Stanley Park on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (CTV News)

If December felt like a constant deluge of wet weather, that’s because it was, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Average total precipitation for the month at Victoria International Airport is 146.1 millimetres. Last month, that weather station recorded 185.1 millimetres.

It was also the fourth-warmest December on record in B.C.’s capital, with average temperatures sitting at around 6.3 C, nearly two degrees warmer than usual.

On the mainland, precipitation at Vancouver International Airport was more in line with normal totals. That weather station sees 172.2 milimetres of precipitation in an average December and received 173.3 millimetres in 2025.

YVR was warmer than normal, however, recording a daily mean temperature of 6.3 C just like Victoria. The weather station’s average December mean temperature is 3.9 C.

ECCC says a series of storms that brought tropical air to the South Coast were responsible for the month’s above-average temperatures and precipitation.

“Most notably, it was these back to back atmospheric rivers around mid-December that really caused a lot of precipitation over just a short duration of a period,” said Ken Dosanjh, a meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“The first three weeks of December (were) consistently wet,” he added.

The first weekend of January is continuing the wet weather trend, with a low-pressure system bringing rain and the possibility of coastal flooding to Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.

“We’re in a perihelion, where Earth is closest to the sun, and so what this does is it creates abnormally large tides,” said Dosanjh. “When you start to compound these high tides with the low-pressure system, you start to elevate the water levels.”

A special weather statement is in effect for much of the South Coast, and Dosanjh said ECCC will be “very closely monitoring” the possibility of coastal flooding, particularly at high tide on Sunday.

Greater Victoria’s wet December wasn’t all bad news, of course. It benefitted the local water supply. As of Dec. 21, the Sooke Reservoir was at nearly 87 per cent capacity.