When September Turns Cold - The Fab Summer Payback!

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

I have been promising to share my thoughts on the serious change in weather in September this year on Facebook, but instead decided to write a blog.  My thoughts on this go back in time, so relax and grab a cuppa!  It's story time.

Glen and I were married in late December 1984 and I moved to Canada just before the end of the year. The last few winters in Seattle had been brutal. It's a hilly city if you lived anywhere near downtown and I had some terribly crazy experiences sliding on icy roads as I drove to work and home. Summers were typical Northwest - few hot days with rain happening off and on.

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Vancouver, BC, weather seemed so different from what I'd experienced in Seattle.  The spring that year blossomed warm and sunny.  From early May through the end of August we woke up to sunshine most days.  Our first apartment was on the top floor of a large home in Kitsilano and our bedroom faced the north shore.  That view of mountains gleaming in the sun was stunning to wake up to. 

Every morning before rising I would turn to Glen and say, "Another beautiful day in paradise."  Never having lived in Vancouver, I assumed this was normal and bemoaned that the weather in Seattle had been so different. Little did I know I was being fooled.  

As soon as September came around, things changed almost instantly. It got cool, the clouds moved in and it started raining. I swear it rained for 18 months straight.  I learned something that day. In Vancouver, if you have a fabulous summer, there is a payback.  It's followed by an early fall that is damp and cool. 

I would have written this off as a fluke if it hadn't happened a second time when I had three young kids.  We booked into a family campground one summer and it was over 30 degrees every day, sunny and beautiful. It was an amazing experience. The next summer we booked into the same campground at the same time and it stinking poured rain every day. SIGH!

Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash

To my memory this phenomena happened another time as well, but by then I knew the truth. If you have a regular summer in Vancouver, most likely the rest of the year will be average as well.  BUT make it a fabulous, beautiful summer with lots of high temps, no rain and tons of sunshine and there will be a payback in the fall/winter.  I only offer you this year as an example.  

Photo by Rikki Chan on Unsplash

Sad to say, Glen and I already turned our heat on once in September - something we normally never do until October - and the gas fireplace in the front room was already used one morning. And there has been a snow fall on the road to the interior. 

We're in for a long fall/winter this year Vancouverites, so get out your sweaters, warm coats and rain gear. Payback has come and after the summer we've had we really can't complain! 

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