748 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

According to the CHEK news tonight the reservoir is expected to reach 95% of capacity by the end of this week.

[sebberry]

After last night's rain, I'm not surprised.

[Nparker]

And this, of course, is why I was puzzled when, in December of 2013, dire predictions of imminent drought and draconian water usage restrictions were talked about. Winter had not even officially started and seeing as Victoria is part of the west coast rain forest climate, it seemed reasonable to me that we just might receive precipitation before any severe measures would need to be taken. But the czars at the "CRD integrated water services" wanted to flex their muscle and start their fear-mongering even earlier than usual.

[Mike K.]

The MSM sure played that up. We were going to run out of water according to their reports.

[HB]

In the summer there wil be more announcement that water rates will need to rise due to pEople doing what they have been told in previous years and conserving water by

 

NOT USING AND WASTING SO MUCH WATER BY WASHING YOUR CARS AND WATERING YOUR POT PLANTS AND FILLING YOUR POOLS AND BLAH BLAH BLAH

[G-Man]

Technically Victoria is not in a rain forest. It is a sub-Mediterranean climate with pretty average rainfall. Victoria gets an average of 93 cm a year of rain whereas a temperate rain forest must receive at least 200 cm a year to qualify for the title. Now it may be a bit different where the reservoir is.

 

Victoria gets less precipitation than Quebec City, Montreal, London Ontario and Halifax. It only gets a smidge more than Ottawa.

[Bingo]

89.8 % as of Feb 17th

[Nparker]

We're not at 100%! We MUST implement stage 3 watering restrictions immediately!

[HB]

All of the  Greater Victoria water catchment area is in the Georgia Basin and within the Coastal Douglas Fir Biogeoclimatic zone.

The Coastal biogeoclimatic zone sits ib thw lee of the Olympic and Vancouver Island mountain giving it a mediterranean type of climate. These rainshadowcoastal forests are dominated by Douglas fir trees with an understory consisting of salal and Oregon grape.

Western Red Cedar may be found in low lying wetter ares of this zone such as Goldstream Park.Garry Oak and Arbutus will be found throughout the drier parts of the region.

 

This region is not part of the temperate rainforest. One would need to travel further to the west before entering the temperate rainforest in ares from Sooke. Most of  Vancouver Island contains temperate rainforest beyond teh Georgia depression.

 

The Biogeoclimatic zone within the temperate rainforests of Vancouver island is called the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone. This northern latitude zoneis found below subapline areas. Western Hemlock and annablis firare the dominant trees. Abundant Rainfall and mild temperatures combine to make these the most productive forests on the Canadian Coast and grow to great sizes due to heavy rainfall.Douglas Firs that grow in this region in can grow up to 100 metres in height and teh Western Red Cedars can reach 4 to 5 metres diameter.

 

So in a nutrshell this backs up what G-Man said above on the subject.

[Nparker]

Alrighty...the CRD is nothing like rainforest, just an area that, given my 36 years of residency, has never experienced severe enough drought conditions to warrant panicing about water restrictions in December preceding the next dry cycle.

[phx]

The Coastal biogeoclimatic zone sits ib thw lee of the Olympic and Vancouver Island mountain giving it a mediterranean type of climate. These rainshadowcoastal forests are dominated by Douglas fir trees with an understory consisting of salal and Oregon grape.

 

What?  We are in the rain shadow of the Sooke hills?

 

Haha, they do squat to shield us from rain!

[HB]

Vancouver Island Mountain Range not the Sooke Hills

 

Systems that come in from the Gulf of Alaska and the northwest must pass over the Vancouver Island range .

Victoria and Nanimo are in the lee of that range

 

 

The Sooke Hills are just that Hills and are located on the very south of the Island.

 

I suggest you leave the confines of Victoria and head out to explore this Island.

You may be surprised to learn and to see that yes we have snow capped mountains on this rock

 

The Sooke Hills are on the lee side of the Olympics and yes to some extent parts of Victoria on the southeast of the island  are on the lee of the Sooke Hills although that would only make a noticible difference for systems that approach from the west and southwest.

 

For further reading look up rainshadow , windward, lee and you will understand more thouroughly how weather systems work in this part of the earth. If you have any questions I would be happy to help you out.

Edited by History Buff, 18 February 2014 - 09:39 PM.

[phx]

Most of our weather comes from the west.  It comes in through the Strait.  Go watch some satellite weather image animations if you don't believe me. 

[HB]

Thats what i just posted.There are low pressure systems that originate and are always found in the Gulf of Alaska and as they rotate and move they send arms of weather at us that come form the north west and at times from the west

 

Systems called  pineapple express come at us from the southwest.

 

Arctic outflows come from the northeast

 

the northwest systems dump alot of rain and that accounts for the massive trees and jungle like condition all along the northand west sides of the Island but also along the whole nortwestern part of North America from  Washington,BC and Alaska

 

the weather itself does not come in the strait. the weather systems are up much higher than sea level. The winds associated with the weather system do however get forced up the strait like a funnel effect due to the Olympics on the south and Vancouver Island on the north so taht could cause confusion wiith people who think all the weather and rain come in the JDF Strait

Edited by History Buff, 18 February 2014 - 10:01 PM.

[eseedhouse]

Alrighty...the CRD is nothing like rainforest, just an area that, given my 36 years of residency, has never experienced severe enough drought conditions to warrant panicing about water restrictions in December preceding the next dry cycle.

 

That sounds a little high.  When I was a kid the rainfall in downtown Victoria at the Weather observatory on Gonzales hill averaged 27" or around 69 c.m.  According to Wikipedia the average varies over the Victoria area between 60 to 100 c.m. depending on location and altitude.

 

The Sooke resevoirs are in the mountains and get quite a bit more rain than that, but October, November, and December of this year set a record for low rainfall during that period over the last 100 years.

 

By contrast the West coast of the island, typically gets three to four meters annually.  When I lived in Tofino in 1955 the schoolteacher told us the average rainfall then was 144" or 12 feet, which was the height of the ceilings in the two room school that was all they had back then.

[eseedhouse]

Most of our weather comes from the west.  It comes in through the Strait.  Go watch some satellite weather image animations if you don't believe me. 

 

Just use google earth on a fairly typical day in Winter.  You'll usually see radar images showing rain all around us, but not often downtown.  It was like that this morning.  Folks out around Langford woke up to whiteness but my place in View Royal was rain free and lots of blue sky showing. 

 

Sure enough when I looked at Google Earth the green radar images were all around us, but downtown stuck out as showing no precipitation on the weather radar.

 

Port Townsend across the straight is also very dry.

 

Even when the rain does make it downtown it is usually much less than out west.

Edited by eseedhouse, 19 February 2014 - 05:35 PM.

[eseedhouse]

What?  We are in the rain shadow of the Sooke hills?

 

Haha, they do squat to shield us from rain!

 

They do quite a bit, actually.  The mountains between us and the west coast are generally around a thousand feet with several over 2000 and Survey mountain tops 3000.  That's high enough to cool moist air to the extent that it rains faster and harder, or snows when the ground below only gets water.

 

The bigger effects come from the Olympic mountains and the Norther ranges of Vancouver Island which top 8000 feet in two peaks and with many over 5000 feet.

 

But the Sooke hills do indeed do their share.  Hint:  guess why they put the resevoir out there!

Edited by eseedhouse, 19 February 2014 - 05:52 PM.

[phx]

.  Hint:  guess why they put the resevoir out there!

Because the hills get more rain as a consequence of orthographic lift.

 

NB: Lots of people confuse the absence of orthographic lift with a rainshadow.  They are not the same at all.

[HB]

 

But the Sooke hills do indeed do their share.  Hint:  guess why they put the resevoir out there!

 

 

They didnt PUT the reservoirs there. And yes there are many of them. The reservoirs are natural lakes  with dams at the outlets to raise the elevation of the surface.They were not put there by digging some holes and letting rainwater fill them.

[Bingo]

95%