howardk

hi...we are almost decided upon vancouver over other locations/offers.....we are leaving ottawa at end of the month....the one huge concern is the wet climate....the area's we favour ; west & north van,deep cove,port moody and maybe some parts of coquitlam seem to be very wet....this must get you down....do you ever get used to it...some have said that north van gets up to 2500mm annually...WOW...that is double london uk and 4 times what we used to get on south island nz..........has anyone moved away because of the wet climate..........many thanks.

meanjock

Hi Iam living in Port Coquitlam. The weather isnt as bad as people say. The thing is with Vancouver, when you wake up in the morning most of the time its cloudy. But more than likely the sun will break throught the clouds by 10 in the morning. Last winter the rain wasnt that bad its worst that back home .North Van could have more rain because its at the bottom of Grouse mountian. But the veiw is one of the most breathtaking Ive ever seen on a good day you can see all of downtown and Vancouver Island. Ive been here 10 months and have loved evey second of it.

Surrey Expat

Still here, 14 winters later. Some winters wetter than others. Last year not so wet.

Snow gets me down more! At least when it stops raining you can do stuff. With snow you have to deal with it for weeks. Most of the time the snow here is where it belongs, up on the mountains, pretty to look at and only go to it when you want snow.

White Rock/Delta is the driest part of the LM. Anywhere along the north shore mountains is going to get more precip.

Vancouver 1285mm
North Van (Capilano) 2044mm
Coquitlam 1924mm
Langley 1486mm
White Rock1102mm
Surrey 1409mm
Abbotsford 1573


There are very different property prices between the areas you are looking at, particularity between West Van and everywhere else. West Van is the most expensive real estate in Canada.

howardk

hi thanks for the info...some of the figures are shocking...........more concerned at the mo with the rainfall figures than the house prices after seeing these figures....our budget is up to $1.2m and so were hoping to scrape into north van good school catchments..but if it rains that much i feel a rethink coming on.....cheers.

Surrey Expat

Take a look at Kitsilano, Point Grey, Southlands. Your budget might be a bit tight for these areas, but you may get lucky, it is in the Vancouver rainfall area, away from the mountains.

Ibraheem

I don't think the 2500mm is true its more like half that amount, however most of the rain comes in Autumn/Winter months, all of july this year I don't think we got more than couple of rainy days, otherwise it was sunny! May and June were not great though, I don't think its a perfect weather but personally I like it way more than the weather in northern England.

Judy in Calgary

It depends which part of North Vancouver you're talking about. See this rainfall map of Vancouver.
x

howardk

thanks for that.....but even at 1900mm that is 3 times the rainfall of edinburgh and london......even in auckland where we were for a while it was only 1150mm and that was near sub tropical....1900mm is a hell of alot of rain....although i guess the spread of rainfall over the months is just as important....

Surrey Expat

Around the 2nd narrows bridge is 1855mm
Cleveland 2437mm
By the docks 1772mm

http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec....s/index_e.html

This past winter was quite dry compared to past years, 06 was unbelievably wet. You get used to it. We live in a rain forest, we get rain!

Ibraheem

hmm interesting, I was actually referring to average in the lower mainland, I did not know that such huge variation takes place in the LM.

getoutofbritainquick

The LM has many micro climates depending on you location and elevation. It also has many natural hazards like rock falls and mudslides occasionally! This can be a problem if you are at the wrong end of the Sea to Sky highway. The fact that the rainfall total is high in some areas can be misleading. The areas with high annual rainfall are usually on the mountain slopes which face the Pacific Ocean and gets heavier rainfall than the other areas - great for skiing in the winter. In winter you can travel 1000m along a road, one area has rain the other snow. Also, the further along the valley you are from the ocean the warmer in summer and colder in winter. If you want drier weather check out the Okanagan.

agr

..or Victoria, which lies in the rain-shadow of the Olympic Mts.

howardk

...unfortunately the job is based in burrard/robson area.....lived in surrey uk many moons ago.........

agr

Ah, then in your shoes I would be tempted to spend $1.1M on a house in Victoria and the remaining $100k on 4 years' worth of daily float plane commutes from Inner Harbour to Coal Harbour, a flight that I could never tire of. (The amount is just a guess - but you get the idea).

Yoong

How about South Surrey,White Rock,Steveston and Richmond.?
http://www.canadaline.ca/
In Nov.09, the Canada Line will be operating from Richmond to downtown.
http://www.translink.bc.ca/?p=1.txt
For South Surrey ,you can have the choice of taking the bus
to Surrey Central or park at Scot Road Station to take the skytrain.
If you want to drive to Surrey Central,here is the parkade that is
managed by Impark.
https://impark.myparkingworld.com/lo...s.aspx?lid=210

Good luck with your choice.
Yoong