After a wet Friday, Coquitlam recorded its 31st consecutive day of precipitation Feb. 7, marking a soggy overtime to a very wet January.
There were a few dry spells over the last month when a city of Coquitlam rain gauge on Burke Mountain recorded small amounts of rainfall. But overwhelmingly, the Tri-Cities was hit with some punishing precipitation, like when up to 40 centimetres of snow dumped on the area over five days.
Since the start of 2020, there’s been only one day — Jan. 8 — in which Coquitlam hasn’t been hit by at least some rain or snowfall, according to the Burke Mountain rain gauge.
But the wettest was saved for the last day of January. When Tri-City residents woke up on Feb. 1, the area had recorded over 140 millimetres of rain in just 24 hours. That’s about 20% of the entire month’s rainfall in a single day.
The torrential rains triggered landslides, evacuations and at least one sewage overflow in Coquitlam, while in Port Coquitlam, several homes were flooded, including a daycare.
In Vancouver, “not since November 11th, 1966, has a streak persisted for so long,” according to The Weather Network.
According to historical rainfall data, the longest running wet streak at Vancouver International Airport was 46 consecutive days. That record was set all the way back in 1952 when rain started falling on Jan. 1 and didn’t let up until Feb. 15.
The good news? The forecast calls for a sunny weekend.
The Tri-Cities can expect sunny skies to persist into Monday, according to The Weather Network. Temperatures are predicted to hover between 7 C and –1 C.
