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Chilliwack rainfall total for November hit ‘all-time high’ of 615 mm

Rainfall data for Chilliwack kept since 1879, and this week’s daily totals broke records
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A flooded property in Yarrow along Boundary Road on Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress file)

The bucketfuls of rain that came down in Chilliwack throughout November were already record-breaking by Monday - with two days to go.

“November 2021 rainfall total is now at an all-time record-breaking 530.2 millimetres (20.87 inches) and counting!” said Roger Pannett, Chilliwack’s volunteer weather observer and storm watcher, in a report at the start of the week.

But there was more.

The 2021 November rainfall total reached the all-time high of 615.6 mm. That’s 257 per cent above normal.

That exceeded previous wettest November totals, of 516.6 mm in 1990, and 520.8 mm in 2006.

Rainfall records for Chilliwack date back to 1879, so these comparisons are possible, Pannett said.

RELATED: Sandbagging in the rain to help neighbours

December 1979 held the previous wettest month record, with 586.2 mm, now bumped out of the way by November 2021.

Daily rainfall totals:

Nov. 27 - 65.7 mm (Previous record that date, 53.1 mm, 1973)

Nov. 28 - 58.2 mm (Previous record for that date, 55.0 mm, 2003)

Nov. 29 - 43.6 mm (Previous record for that date, 41.9 mm, 1939).

Nov. 30 - 54.6 mm

So the storm total for the second event was 136.7 mm of rain, Pannett said, while the third event it was 84.8 mm.

The most recent heavy rain system was the third atmospheric river to hit the Lower Mainland in two weeks.

“With a total of four atmospheric rivers, historical rainfall totals occurred in the Fraser Valley. Four rainfall records, including a historical 24 hour rainfall event were observed.”

RELATED: What to do when the basement floods

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Jennifer Feinberg

About the Author: Jennifer Feinberg

I have been a Chilliwack Progress reporter for 20+ years, covering the arts, city hall, as well as Indigenous, and climate change stories.
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