Ahhhhhh, January. The holidays are over for many of us, and we are back, struggling to find a routine in the cold, dark days that still feel mostly like night. Many of us have stumbled around for two weeks full of cheese and unsure what day it is, but we have a brand-new calendar that tells us it’s FRIDAY and JANUARY 10, so we can orient ourselves properly to the computer. We tell ourselves that the days are all getting longer. We mark January 15 on our calendars as the first day of 2025 that the sunrise is before 8am and January 25 as the first day of 2025 that the sun sets after 5pm. We take our Vitamin D (D3 for the shellfish-averse) with ritualistic regularity, we stumble out of hibernation, and we buckle up for the year.
Honestly, January is a tough month for many. If your holidays are over, you may find yourself with a fierce family hangover, trying to get back to reality. And, let’s face it, in Canada the nights are longer, and most places are bitterly cold. So what’s so great about January in Victoria?
Well, for one, Victoria isn’t very cold. My parents come visit from the Midwestern US, and then complain that the “humidity cuts right through” them, but we still go out for lengthy walks and enjoy time outside if the rain isn’t too heavy. I went for a run this morning in a hoodie, no toque or mittens. It gets cold-ish, and it’s definitely rainy and grey, but freezing is rare, and snow is even moreso. It’s more like “my ears sting a little,” “my nose feels chilly,” or “that’s invigorating,” and less like “my teeth hurt,” “I can’t feel my face at all,” or “my coffee froze on the way in from the parking lot.” So, if you’re waist-deep in snow right now and your teeth feel simultaneously like they are pushing up through your sinuses and about to break off from the cold, Victoria might sound like a tropical getaway.
Victoria is further south, making the days just a bit longer than for our northern friends. It’s south of the 49th parallel, the southernmost urban area in Western Canada. While this doesn’t make the weather or the daylight hours equatorial by any means, it does mean that we see our pre-8am sunrise and our post-5pm sunset earlier in the year than most of Canada.
We also have a plethora of things to do, even on the truly chilly and rainy days. Remember that we have both surfing and skiing within day trip distance. Winter weather doesn’t stop the water fun; wetsuits keep our surfers and paddlers warm all-year round. Plus, stormier weather can bring gnarly swell in the winter, brah. And while the winter sports on Vancouver Island are usually “wet coast” sports with heavy snow, when there is a La Niña year (like right now), the snow tends to be, well, EPIC . We still have mountain bikers careening down mountains during the winter. And hikers know the best waterfall views are definitely not in the summer when our skies are blue and the air dry.
We still look forward to holidays in Victoria. While many winter holidays have run their course, Lunar New Year is celebrated by much of Victoria in January, with many festivities in Chinatown. Our skies may be dreary and rainy, but there are lots of colourful celebrations to see January out.
And, yes, like everywhere else, our days get a minute or two longer every day of January. We have glimpses of warmer weather and snippits bluer skies. Some years, snowdrops even bloom.
Welcome back from hibernation, friends. Spring is on its way.