5 ms·

I live in Vancouver - my coworkers and family were very aware of this, watching footage online and exclaiming at the brutal nature of the weather and landslides

I live in Vancouver - my coworkers and family were very aware of this, watching footage online and exclaiming at the brutal nature of the weather and landslides we experienced yesterday. Never seen this many roads closed in BC in my nearly 4 decades living here.

cronix 5y ago
The whole upper pacific coastline is experiencing it. There is a lot of flooding along the Oregon coast as well with cars/trailers floating away and evacuations. Intense rains for days at a time. I mean we get a lot of rain here, but this has been pretty crazy and constant.
- AutumnCurtain 5y ago
  Let's hope it migrates further south and relieves some of the California drought. Any meteorologists have a sense of the weather patterns at play here?
  - cbsks 5y ago
    According to this meteorologist “Drier-than-average winter still most likely outcome for most of California” https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748 https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748
    - mmgutz 5y ago
      Average winter seems a distant memory in Cali.
      - ctrager 5y ago
        2017 and 2019 were big Sierra snowpack years, double average. I don't mean this to be a comment on long term trends.
  - waiseristy 5y ago
    Typically it's snowpack that relieves drought. All torrential rain does is remove topsoil and blow out bridges
    - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
      Torrential rain can replace water in underground aquifers. But there is only so much water that can be absorbed by the ground, much of it just rushes out to sea.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - lhorie 5y ago
    Oh, the atmospheric river did hit California, and pretty hard in some places. Last month was the wettest October on record here in San Francisco. The area around Dixie (where there was a big fire earlier this year) saw landslides. According to a podcast I listened to, this pattern might actually be bad because alternating cycles of extreme rain and extreme dryness means more vegetation growth during the wet months which in turn means more fuel to burn during the dry months.
    - AutumnCurtain 5y ago
      The loss of established growth hurts in the rainy season too as landslides worsen. In our local San Bernardino mountains here burn patches quickly turn to land or mudslides.
  - mrtnmcc 5y ago
    It looks like we will be in another La Nina year, which means wetter northwest and drier southwest.. unfortunately. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-drought.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-dro...
    - akiselev 5y ago
      That's not saying much anymore - the systems getting more and more unpredictable. The last La Nina was also supposed to worsen the ongoing drought but ended up dumping so much water that the state of emergency (or whatever its called) was withdrawn that March. IIRC it did dry out the San Diego area a bit, where the drought wasn't as bad.
iammisc 5y ago
I'm not sure about BC, but coastal cities (not the big ones... the little ones) on the Pacific coast of the states regularly get 'stranded'. Honestly, as usual, the media overplays everything. The fact is that Vancouver and most major coastal cities are not going to be super-affected. The truth is that -- based on current import patterns -- the rest of the country is more likely to face shortages than any West Coast city where all the freight comes in.
megablast 5y ago
Keep driving your car, pretending you’re not destroying the planet.
- macromagnon 5y ago
  Transportation accounts for 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions [1] and that includes rail/air/marine travel so it doesn't seem to be as simple as getting people out of their cars. [1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emiss...
  - ianai 5y ago
    Probably a better metric for us average people is to ask what produces most of our personal emissions. Yes, won’t correct the problem. But will give people a sense of agency instead of yet another way to feel helpless. It’s going to take an “all of the above, all hands on deck” response.
    - cookingrobot 5y ago
      But you have to focus your efforts to get the biggest results. In this case I suspect only government can solve the problem (because someone’s going to have to change or end entire industries). So the best use of our energy might trying to be get an effective government in place.
      - saila 5y ago
        I think about this a lot, and it seems to me that the amount effort it would take to get an effective government in place is roughly equal to the amount of effort it would take for people to make individual changes to their habits and consumption (which in turn, presumably, would cause industry and governments to change). In fact, they seem like essentially the same thing in that they both require the same kind of individual effort and engagement. Right now, all most people do is vote (if they even bother) or maybe make donations, which really doesn't seem to be enough. Voting is important, but it doesn't have much impact if the same kinds of candidates keep getting elected, which is largely due to dysfunction in the electoral system, at least in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere, but I don't know enough about other countries to say). Similarly, all most people do is recycle, which definitely isn't enough, given a lot (most?) of what gets put in the recycling bin doesn't get recycled, due in part to both lack of financial incentive as well as contamination from non-recyclables (confusing rules and general lack of care apparently). I would like to think we could vote in a government that's focused on progress rather than partisan power struggles, but I don't think that's likely to happen any time soon, if ever. It would require a level of engagement that I just don't see happening. I'd also like to think that we could change our habits on a mass scale and demand change through social and market forces, but in a similar way, I don't see that happening either. Their are just too many economic and cultural forces acting against progress.
panarky 5y ago
If you don't mind two international border crossings, there actually is a way to drive from Vancouver to the rest of Canada. For example: https://imgur.com/a/MAqFSHd https://imgur.com/a/MAqFSHd
- yashap 5y ago
  Much more difficult at the moment, due to COVID.

cronix 5y ago

The whole upper pacific coastline is experiencing it. There is a lot of flooding along the Oregon coast as well with cars/trailers floating away and evacuations. Intense rains for days at a time. I mean we get a lot of rain here, but this has been pretty crazy and constant.

AutumnCurtain 5y ago
Let's hope it migrates further south and relieves some of the California drought. Any meteorologists have a sense of the weather patterns at play here?
- cbsks 5y ago
  According to this meteorologist “Drier-than-average winter still most likely outcome for most of California” https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748 https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748
  - mmgutz 5y ago
    Average winter seems a distant memory in Cali.
    - ctrager 5y ago
      2017 and 2019 were big Sierra snowpack years, double average. I don't mean this to be a comment on long term trends.
- waiseristy 5y ago
  Typically it's snowpack that relieves drought. All torrential rain does is remove topsoil and blow out bridges
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    Torrential rain can replace water in underground aquifers. But there is only so much water that can be absorbed by the ground, much of it just rushes out to sea.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- lhorie 5y ago
  Oh, the atmospheric river did hit California, and pretty hard in some places. Last month was the wettest October on record here in San Francisco. The area around Dixie (where there was a big fire earlier this year) saw landslides. According to a podcast I listened to, this pattern might actually be bad because alternating cycles of extreme rain and extreme dryness means more vegetation growth during the wet months which in turn means more fuel to burn during the dry months.
  - AutumnCurtain 5y ago
    The loss of established growth hurts in the rainy season too as landslides worsen. In our local San Bernardino mountains here burn patches quickly turn to land or mudslides.
- mrtnmcc 5y ago
  It looks like we will be in another La Nina year, which means wetter northwest and drier southwest.. unfortunately. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-drought.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-dro...
  - akiselev 5y ago
    That's not saying much anymore - the systems getting more and more unpredictable. The last La Nina was also supposed to worsen the ongoing drought but ended up dumping so much water that the state of emergency (or whatever its called) was withdrawn that March. IIRC it did dry out the San Diego area a bit, where the drought wasn't as bad.

iammisc 5y ago

I'm not sure about BC, but coastal cities (not the big ones... the little ones) on the Pacific coast of the states regularly get 'stranded'. Honestly, as usual, the media overplays everything. The fact is that Vancouver and most major coastal cities are not going to be super-affected. The truth is that -- based on current import patterns -- the rest of the country is more likely to face shortages than any West Coast city where all the freight comes in.

megablast 5y ago

Keep driving your car, pretending you’re not destroying the planet.

macromagnon 5y ago
Transportation accounts for 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions [1] and that includes rail/air/marine travel so it doesn't seem to be as simple as getting people out of their cars. [1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emiss...
- ianai 5y ago
  Probably a better metric for us average people is to ask what produces most of our personal emissions. Yes, won’t correct the problem. But will give people a sense of agency instead of yet another way to feel helpless. It’s going to take an “all of the above, all hands on deck” response.
  - cookingrobot 5y ago
    But you have to focus your efforts to get the biggest results. In this case I suspect only government can solve the problem (because someone’s going to have to change or end entire industries). So the best use of our energy might trying to be get an effective government in place.
    - saila 5y ago
      I think about this a lot, and it seems to me that the amount effort it would take to get an effective government in place is roughly equal to the amount of effort it would take for people to make individual changes to their habits and consumption (which in turn, presumably, would cause industry and governments to change). In fact, they seem like essentially the same thing in that they both require the same kind of individual effort and engagement. Right now, all most people do is vote (if they even bother) or maybe make donations, which really doesn't seem to be enough. Voting is important, but it doesn't have much impact if the same kinds of candidates keep getting elected, which is largely due to dysfunction in the electoral system, at least in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere, but I don't know enough about other countries to say). Similarly, all most people do is recycle, which definitely isn't enough, given a lot (most?) of what gets put in the recycling bin doesn't get recycled, due in part to both lack of financial incentive as well as contamination from non-recyclables (confusing rules and general lack of care apparently). I would like to think we could vote in a government that's focused on progress rather than partisan power struggles, but I don't think that's likely to happen any time soon, if ever. It would require a level of engagement that I just don't see happening. I'd also like to think that we could change our habits on a mass scale and demand change through social and market forces, but in a similar way, I don't see that happening either. Their are just too many economic and cultural forces acting against progress.

panarky 5y ago

If you don't mind two international border crossings, there actually is a way to drive from Vancouver to the rest of Canada. For example: https://imgur.com/a/MAqFSHd https://imgur.com/a/MAqFSHd

yashap 5y ago
Much more difficult at the moment, due to COVID.