Last week, UVic Law Admissions hosted a webinar about housing in Victoria for prospective students. To our surprise, a lot of the questions we got from the participants were about Victoria itself, not housing. We got questions about weather, public transportation, crime, roads, and more. I thought I would take a moment to answer what I could from my perspective.
Note: this will be done in a couple of parts because I verbosity is one of my strengths.
First of all, I have lived in many places, and I love Victoria. It’s beautiful, the weather is mild, and you can find something to do any time of year. There are markets, breweries, and an urban feel, yet it’s small enough to not feel like an overwhelmingly large city. My favourite thing about Vancouver Island is that the population isn’t so big that you don’t run into the same faces from time to time.
That said, it is different from other places I have lived. It’s got a very British feel to it, which is new to me. It is the most walkable place I’ve ever lived, the place with the best public transportation, and the place with the most transportation options. I’ve also gotten more comfortable driving in the fog than I ever thought anyone could be. How you see Victoria largely depends on how it relates to where you come from, what your expectations are, and how comfortable you are with embracing adjustment, which is exactly what I would say about anywhere in the world.
Today’s discussion: weather realities
Bring two rain jackets, but hold the umbrella
Just to position myself, I grew up in Kansas. If you don’t know where that is, look at a map of the US, and point directly to the middle. It’s somewhere in there. Also, please don’t make Wizard of Oz jokes. They’re really not funny.
The weather in Kansas very superlative. That is, when it’s hot, it’s sweltering. When it’s cold, it’s frigid. When it’s windy, you can’t wear a hat. When it’s stormy, you really can’t go outside – thunder, lightning, tornadoes, big hail, wind, heavy rain, and all of that. Rarely is there a day that Kansans say, “The weather is quite mild today.”
Victoria, on the other hand, while one of the most superlatively beautiful places on the planet, has non-superlative weather. It can have big effects, but it’s usually mild. What does that mean? Well, we have heat waves, and they can be hot, but they usually last only a few days and typically cool down at night. They can be devastating because buildings are not always set up with adequate insulation or air conditioning for that heat. They, along with other weather events, are getting more common with climate change. However, they are still novel, at least for now.
We also get atmospheric rivers and wind storms. Systems move through Victoria like they do anywhere else. Again, these are usually short-lived, and, while they have caused incredible destruction (see the atmospheric river of November 2021), they are generally not a bigger deal than any system that moves through anywhere else.
That said, most of our weather is some mild version of spring or fall. Cloudy, light winds, light rain, maybe a little fog in the morning – that’s kind of our jam. We sometimes get heavy rains, but we rarely get thunder, and it’s definitely never enough thunder to call it a thunderstorm by my standards. We do not get as much rain as Vancouver. The wind does not blow hard or long enough that the trees grow at an angle. Any hail we get is small enough that it doesn’t feel like giant ice pellets falling from the sky and aggressively pelting you as penance for your past sins. It’s usually mild enough that we don’t mind being outside. It might be a little cool, a little rainy, or a little windy, but a rain jacket takes care of that.
You don’t need the world’s most expensive rain jacket. After all, pretty much everyone in Victoria dresses like they’re ready for an impromptu hike (because we are!), so a casual rain jacket is fine. We also love to thrift. But my advice to anyone coming here from somewhere else is this: if you find a second rain jacket – even at a thrift store – it may be worth getting. Sometimes the first rain jacket gets wet, and then it’s just uncomfortable to put on to go back out. I actually own four rain jackets (two thin and two fleece lined). I do not own an umbrella. People use them in Victoria, but I find them generally unnecessary.
Not to plug a company, but there is a Vancouver company called Vessi that makes incredible waterproof jackets, backpacks, and shoes (nfi). They are spendy, so they are not for everyone, but they are worth it for those in the position to splurge a bit.
Though our summers are beautiful and summer sunshine plentiful, a genuine issue that people who move here from other parts of the country (and world) have when they first winter in Victoria is the lack of sunlight in the winter. Being of our non-superlative weather, skies in the winter tend to be cloudy. Especially if you are from a place with significant winter sunlight, you might talk to your doctor about Vitamin D supplements or other ways to combat the lack of sunlight.
But I heard the city shuts down when it snows
Disclaimer: I am not a meteorologist. I know people who are, and when they talk about things like adiabatic pressure and hydrometric data, my eyes gloss over. It’s not my strong suit. What follows are merely anecdotal ramblings from someone with an opinion and a platform.
There are some realities about living in the Pacific Northwest (specifically the Canadian Banana Belt). It is an island, which means that much of it is located at sea level and near the ocean, so it tends to have mild weather. If you choose to live or travel outside of Victoria, you may experience something a little different.
In Victoria itself, it does freeze sometimes in the winter. There have been a few recorded “no freeze” years, but it occasionally happens that you wake up on a cold January morning to -2. It rarely stays below freezing for 24 hours, though it can happen. It also rarely snows, though it does happen most years (historical data shows between 2 and 10 days per year). It doesn’t stick much of the time. It’s a novelty to look at the snowflakes falling, but they melt as they hit the ground. Sometimes snow stays around for a few days. When it does, people talk about it a lot, mostly as if it never happens, which isn’t true.
However, if you go up island, inland, or to a higher elevation, you are more likely to see snow or freezing temperatures. You won’t be as likely to see freezing temps or snow as literally anywhere else in Canada (not fact checked but at least close to true), but you are more likely than at sea level Victoria.
Before people from literally anywhere else in Canada start laughing about our winters, it’s worth it to keep in mind that it’s more dangerous to drive on roads that are icy (in the +4 to -4 range) than snowy. If it is cold and wet, the roads can get slick. Mountain passes can get slick. Places at high elevation can get slick. If it’s cold and rainy in Victoria, it might be cold and icy in places. It’s rare-ish for that to happen in Victoria, but it does happen. When it does, yes, the city “shuts down.” It’s safer that way. But it’s not a big deal for most people. Trust me, you can hear everyone talking about it for days before it happens, and most people are able to plan ahead in case classes are canceled or the buses don’t run.
And who doesn’t love a snow (or ice) day?
The ideal place for a cold plunge
Positioning myself again, I spent 30+ years living in places with warm water during swimming season (28 degree water temperatures). We wouldn’t go swimming in cold water; cold plunges simply were not a thing. I also briefly lived on an island in the Atlantic where swimming was like taking a warm bath.
The Pacific Ocean is not warm like the Atlantic is. Our Vancouver Island lakes, rivers, and streams do get warm in the summer, though they still feel cool to someone who grew up swimming in warm waters.
I have a number of friends who regularly invite me for a cold plunge in the ocean. While I am still a big hell no on that, I do understand that there are celebrated benefits from it. And it’s a very popular activity. In fact, whether it’s January or July, you can find people swimming in the ocean off Victoria, in wetsuits and without them.
For the record, I find my wetsuit one of the best investments I’ve made. I enjoy a good surf or SUP session, but I like my fingers and toes to be warm.
Next week we talk about transportation, roads, crime, and wildlife encounters