Just how rainy is it in beautiful BC anyway?

As this is our first visit to British Columbia, we've been comparing it with Ontario, wondering if perhaps - even with its high real estate prices - it's somewhere we'd consider for our "golden" years.

Having asked many residents what they like about Victoria, the most common answers are the number of days of sunshine and the overall temperate climate. A few cautioned about the amount of rain in winter, but we're snowbirds, so we don't give that as much attention, for now at least.

I thought I'd see if there's data to support these opinions (ignore the highlighting below).

As for sunshine, Victoria came in 24th at 2086 hours, with St. Catharines (the closest city to Niagara Falls on the charts) at 2004 hours. Not a huge difference. If you're searching for sunshine, Medicine Hat, Alberta was #1 at 2512 hours.

For temperate climate, I based it on the mildest winter temperature and the fewest freezing days.

Victoria placed first in this category, at 7.4ºC. St Catharines was significantly lower at just above freezing. The coldest was Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, at -20.32ºC. Brrr!

Although Victoria came second for the fewest freezing days, St. Catharines placed a healthy 14th. However, with 77 more freezing days, I think that's significant. 

So what about British Columbia's reputation for being rainy? 

Victoria placed 26th with 841 mm rain a year, and St. Catharines placed 49th with 745 mm of rain. I don't think that's a great deal more rain than St. Catharines. Prince Rupert, BC won first prize there, with a whopping 2468 mm rain. It also came first for most very wet days, whereas Victoria and St. Catharines were tied at just 5 days a year. Sometimes it feels like more than that!

Over the past few days we've had some mornings when it's rained heavily. Saturday was one of those days. It was also a celebratory open house day for Victoria and many of the city's cultural venues were free to the public. Unfortunately, not good weather for many of the planned activities.

We went for a drive in the afternoon, after it had stopped raining. This photo gives you an idea of what it was like, with heavy skies threatening rain all the time.

The photo was taken at Arbutus Park, which is named after the arbutus tree. A BC government website states the tree is found on sites that lack moisture - which contradicts the theory it rains so much here! It goes on to explain that it's found on rocky or rapidly drained sites. That was the case here.

To the right of the first photo was this view. We were at the top of a steep staircase that dropped down to the rocky beach below. Notice how the sky is very different to what we saw over to the left. The clearer sky was in the direction of where we live, so that was encouraging.

This park was yet another area designed as an off-leash dog park, and Fanci loved being on the rocks with Greg. Again you can see the heavy skies.

We've had a few days of rain now, but this afternoon has been beautiful. We were at the beach this afternoon and there were lots of people taking advantage of the warm weather. We've had enough rain for a while now!

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Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Weather: High 20ºC (68ºF), low 8ºC (46ºF)

Permission was given by the homeowners to use photos of their pet.