Friendly Friday Challenge: WEATHER

Sandy

For the next two weeks the Friendly Friday Challenge is to talk about the WEATHER.

When I first came to Canada, I was amazed at how people obsessed about the weather. I grew up in the Caribbean where there are no seasons and temperatures hover between 27/30 °C every day. No one ever talked about the weather because it was always the same.

Here in Canada though, every conversation seemed to include the weather. “Great day outside!” “Cold enough for you!” “Never too hot!” “Go$@ F#$@ng snow” Every TV channel included a weather report and there were TV channels that reported nothing but weather.

It was all strange … forty years ago. But I am acclimatized now. I am just as obsessed with the weather. While I mightn’t make a meal of it, I will check the morning forecast, if only to confirm what jacket to wear outside.

Lately, I’ve been learning even more about the weather. It’s because I’m on Canada’s Pacific west coast.

Last week we had an atmospheric river sweeping through the western British Columbia. Have you ever heard of an atmospheric river? I hadn’t but it is pretty self-explanatory. It means rain. Six days of near constant rain. When it wasn’t raining, it was pending rain.

Which meant for some pretty dramatic skies.

I took this picture at high noon when there was so much cloud cover, it looked like dusk. It was eerie and foreboding and if this was a movie, it’d portend a massive strike from the gods. As it was, we just got more rain.

Noon day sun peering through eerie skies (Ucluelet, Vancouver Island)

But the good thing about rain? When it clears up, the day is even brighter.

But that was last week. That weather front has moved on and now there’s another meteorological warning in effect. We have a weather bomb coming. It’s a cyclogenesis caused by a massive drop in atmospheric pressure (more than 24 millibars in 24 hours) that will cause high surfs and 120+ km/h winds. Plus, more rain.

Luckily, I am not in northwest Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. Here in southwest Ucluelet and Tofino, we are expecting winds of only 76 km/h.

In this video, you can see the surf building up.

What’s the WEATHER like in your part of the world? Tell us about it for the Friendly Friday Challenge.

You have two weeks to publish your response, after which Amanda will pose a new topic. Remember to include a pingback to this post, so that I can find you. Full instructions on Friendly Friday can be found here.

Vancouver Island, Canada. October 2021

66 Comments

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    1. Despite my whiny undertones, I’m actually in awe of the weather here. All these grey and rainy days make the clear and bright ones so much better.

      As well, it helps to be in my pleasant state of being and not having to go out, if I don’t want to. I remember miserable days of commuting to work in ghastly ice storms. Chipping away at ice fully encasing my car … agh. the worst!

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      1. I admire your positive attitude!! Pandemic working from home has eased my weather angst a lot, too, but unfortunately this can’t last forever. Companies want their minions back at the office where they can see them! 😆 So winter commuting will inevitably be another chore to fulfill, sooner or later

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  5. Hi, Sandy;
    I’ve just found you blog through Manja’s post in An Embarrassment of Riches.
    I’m in Toronto, north of the city, and I had no idea you guys on the West Coast have such an expressive weather vocabulary. “Atmospheric River” Love that one 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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  10. Atmospheric rivers & water bombs …. I love it!
    Weather is a rathe interesting & peculiar conversation indicator – location & culture has a lot of to do with it. I think functionality plays a huge part too.
    Although weather in Singapore (as you know very well) is significantly less varied than what you experience, conversations about rain take up some air time in our household. Largely because it affects our walk/run outings.

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  16. Here in the UK we share the Canadian obsession with the weather, for all the same reasons! I loved watching your video of the surf – I love to see the ocean at its wildest 🙂

    Unfortunately I spotted that you’d chosen weather as a theme and immediately composed and posted a response, only to find on reading more carefully that you’ve asked us to share what the weather is like where we live! Being me, I’ve written about some weather on my travels instead – oops, sorry 🙄 I’ll try to come up with some UK weather later in the fortnight, I promise. Meanwhile here is some from Iceland: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/learning-to-dance-in-the-rain-icelands-golden-circle/

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    1. It’s a long ways away from Tasmania 🙂 I’ve only been as far as Melbourne myself … been saving Tasmania for another trip, which given current travel restrictions, may be in another lifetime 🙂

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  26. “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it” (old danish multi-artist, Robert Storm Petersen – often just called “StormP”) – he undoubtedly had a good point. 😀

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    3. Wow, fascinating! I just mention this quote in my today’s post without seeing your comment before. I remember it a bit differently because I only knew it in Slovenian in my youth, without knowing the author, and have translated it now into English. In Slovenian it was more like: “Everybody gets mad at bad weather, and yet nobody does a thing.” Thank you, Drake! (I googled the saying now and it is most often attributed to Mark Twain but actually it was first used by Charles Dudley Warner.)

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  31. Fantastic drone footage of the rough surf at Ucluelet coast. It reminds me of the turbulent weather we have at Easter – ah there is an idea for my post!
    I always wondered about the folks in Singapore not using weather as a conversation topic, and I suspect they are exactly like that for the weather is equatorial and same same all year round. Imagine the weather forecast yesterday it ws 25 degrees C, today it was 25 degrees and tomorrow, suprise, it will be 25 degrees!

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    1. Surely not Singapore? Last time I was there it was 33, 33 and 33 C. When it dropped below 30 everyone wore sweaters and wooly hats 🙂

      25 degrees is a lovely temperature … must be in your part of the world!

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      1. Okay, you are right, Sandy. My bad… read – 33, 33, 33 – instead of 25 degrees. I was taking a rough guess but even 25, with high humidity, feels like 33 or 37 to me.
        I agree 25 degrees here is a nice winter day. No humidity!
        The point is more about the repetition of the same conditions on a daily basis. Did you find that?

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        1. Yes, of course. In Singapore, as well as where I grew up in Jamaica, we didnt’ talk about weather because it was always the same. I like the variety offered by the four seasons. Much prettier.

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          1. Me too. It gives an impression of time passing, and a kick in the butt if you have wasted some weeks relaxing a little too much. It is easy for months to slip by unnoticed, if nature isn’t giving you that trigger. I would look forward to the white stuff falling as you folks may do towards the summer. There seems to be an extended summer/autumn in parts of the US and I wonder if you are also experiencing this in Canada?

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          2. Hmm. I’m not sure. I wouldn’t normally be in B.C. during the fall, so it’s harder to tell. However, it’s good if autumn is extended because they’re forecasting a harsher than normal winter. Lots and lots of snow expected.

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