February blahs? Not in Victoria!

You often hear the term February blahs, especially from people in other parts of Canada who are tired of the cold, snow and slush, and they know that they probably have a couple more months of winter to endure.  I think this is the time of year when I am most appreciative of living in Victoria.  This may not be the nicest time of year in Victoria, but compared with most of the rest of Canada, it is heaven.  (It was -26 degrees in Toronto this morning, although granted that is very cold even for them!)

versus

As I mentioned in this post, while February is still the depth of winter in many parts of Canada, the coldest and dreariest point of the winter in Victoria tends to happen quite early, around the end of December.  By February, the weather is noticeably warmer, drier, and sunnier.  The average high temperature in February in Victoria is 9 degrees, a degree warmer than January and nearly two degrees warmer than December.

February is also noticeably drier, with an average of just 61 mm of precipitation compared with more than 100 mm each month in November, December, and January - the end of the rainy season is definitely in sight!  On average, there is a 43% chance of measurable precipitation on any given day in February (compared with than 50% in November, December, and January).  As I've said before, I think looking at the % chance of rain on any given day somewhat overstates how rainy it is, since a day with measurable precipitation doesn't necessarily mean rain all day - it could be a brief shower.  Another way to look at at this is the % of hours with measurable precipitation, and for Victoria in February there is precipitation just 19% of the time.

The sun is also making more of an appearance, with 98 hours of sunshine in a typical February in Victoria.  That works out to an average of 3.5 hours per day, compared with only 2.3 hours per day in January and 2.0 hours per day in December.  On average, February gets 22 days with at least some measurable sunshine, and overall, it is sunny about 35% of the time (at least during daylight hours!).  In other words, during daylight hours it's actually more likely for the sun to be shining February (35% of the time) than it is to be raining (19% of the time).

Snow is also pretty rare in February in Victoria.  Over the past 30 years, only 11 Februarys have seen any snow at all and just 5 of the past 30 Februarys saw significant snowfall (more than 10 cm).  When it does snow, it melts quickly; Victoria averages just 0.7 days with snow on the ground during February.

The other nice thing about February is that it's springtime!  Crocuses, daffodils, and rhodos are blooming, and the cherry blossoms are out.  Sometimes when we have mild weather in February, they will also get warm weather in Southern Alberta, with temperatures in the teens.  While that must be a nice break from the cold and the snow, it's so much nicer to enjoy the mild weather here when there is greenery and flowers everywhere!  Here's a few photos I took last week (February 8) around Victoria:

Rhododendrons at Beacon Hill Park

Camelias

Irises

Even the bees are out

Finally, here is a link to a great video that really sums up how nice February can be in Victoria.