#BlaineThings
~It’s raining ~it’s pouring ~this city is roaring
Raincouver isn’t the worst title of our beloved city, but it isn’t great. Sure, it describes the aqueous nature of the metropolis, but the soggy adjective is so haphazardly thrown around that it doesn’t make much sense. The title replaces the first syllable of the name with an adjective that describes the “couver” as a city well known for rain, but replaces the non-adjectival syllable of “Van,” because Vancouver is not renowned for its box-shaped creepy automobiles. It’s okay, though, because it’s funny, and the nickname holds a lot of truth.
Vancouver is the second rainiest city in Canada, averaging at approximately 164 rainy days per year, bested only by Abbotsford which gets roughly 174 rainy days per year. For more than half of the year, we face rain! There are Canadian cities that receive more precipitation, but we can only enviously watch as theirs falls as heavenly fluff. Based on our latitudinal position, the wind blows east across Vancouver. To our west is the Pacific Ocean, and these eastward winds carry moisture from the ocean into Vancouver airspace, producing the perfect conditions for a bombardment of moist gobs.
This adjacent ocean also serves as a heat sink. As opposed to central cities which experience more extreme temperatures, Vancouver’s situation on the coast makes it the victim of all the heat energy stored in the ocean. The ocean is vast and deep, and stores more heat than dry land. Because of this, while the central cities are freezing through winter, Vancouver stays warm.
As the privileged recipients of this rain, we can use it to improve our daily lives. It’s unreasonable to go out into any rainy day with poor equipment that’s obviously not designed for conditions. All you need is a good set of rain gear, and rainy days can become endlessly fun! On a good day, rain riddles Vancouver’s streets with puddles, serving two purposes: jumping over them, and jumping in. Whether you’re into puddle-jumping or, more likely, puddle-parkour, good rain gear makes any situation better. However, you can also find satisfaction by successfully navigating a treacherous water-land in an outfit totally vulnerable to rain while staying dry.
With great rain comes great mud. If you’re going on a boring hike through one of Vancouver’s parks, you can always rely on rain to bring joy and excitement to your day, turning the whole trail into a wicked mudslide. If you’re not a fan of battling the elements, the ravaging rain turns your house or any building into a cozy sanctuary. While rain may blemish any day with its glum atmosphere, we might as well enjoy the plant-revitalizing, reservoir-refilling nature of our city and embrace it for what it is: a wonderful thing.
