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Vancouver sets rainy record

The record stood for almost 80 years.
rain-vancouver-chinatown
Vancouver set a rainy record on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.

Even for Vancouver, the last 48 hours have been wet.

The city has been doused by the first major rainstorm of the season, with flooding, road closures, power outages, and more across the region.

It may not surprise many, then, that a record was set this weekend.

On Saturday, Oct. 19 the Environment Canada weather station at the airport recorded around 67.1 mm of rain, according to meteorologist Gary Dickinson. That breaks the daily rain record for past October 19s.

"The rain was pretty intense overnight," he tells V.I.A. of the atmospheric river.

It was almost two records in a row.

On Friday, Oct. 18, the dousing started in Vancouver, but it wasn't a record. Dickinson says 34.2 mm fell this year, while 35.8 mm fell in 1940.

Another record is possible, though. The current record for Oct. 20 was set in 2000, when 27.4 mm fell. Dickinson says as of noon on Sunday 16.4 mm had been recorded, with more rain falling.

"It was a very significant storm with well in excess of 100 to 200 mm for a 48 to 60 hour period," he says.

Dickinson notes that while the amounts are all quite high, precipitation is highly variable in the region. He points to Coquitlam, which has gotten more than double the rainfall recorded in Vancouver.