I live in Vancouver. It doesn’t snow in Vancouver. We get a token snow day each year, everyone takes their kids to the park to slide down hills on garbage bags, and the next day the rain washes it all away. That’s winter.
Most people I know barely own a winter coat. Or boots. Okay, there’s that crowd that goes skiing and snowboarding and so on, but the rest of us have a nice windbreaker, maybe some hiking boots and a touque. It’s just not worth the investment for something you’re likely only going to wear once a year. In the 33 years I’ve lived here, I think there’s only ever been one white Christmas (Note to self: look up weather almanac on the web, source weather conditions on Dec. 25 for last 33 years. Write blog post proving my point.)
So why am I going on about this? Our usually mild winter has been replaced this year with a plethora of freak wind and snow storms, with some excessive rainfall thrown in for good measure. In early November we were hit with torrential rainfall that caused turbidity in the reservoirs so severe that many residents couldn’t drink the water for two weeks without boiling it first.
Shortly after the water returned to normal, we were hit with snowstorms that brought the city to a standstill for the last week of November.
Mid-December brought hurricane-force winds that downed more than a thousand old-growth trees in Stanley Park and left hundreds of thousands of people without power for days at a time. The wind returned in fits and spurts through the Christmas season, culminating in a brief flurry of sloppy snow on January 5.
Now, once again, it has snowed more than a foot in 36 hours, and the temperature is currently -2 and falling. The roads will freeze and there will be carnage again tomorrow morning on the roads of the city.
That’s enough. I hate this crap. I hate wearing boots and heavy jackets, sweeping snow off my car or truck, scraping the frost off the inside of my windshield, tramping through slush to get a cup of coffee, or just staring in dismay at the cold, miserable, slushy sight outside my window. Snow belongs on the mountains. Hurricanes belong in Florida.
I can’t wait for summer.