The data is from the monthly summaries put out by Environment Canada. The Normals are the station where the anomaly from the 1971-2000 average is calculated by EC.
Precipitation is in mm of rain equivalent. Some of it would be snow. About 25mm to the inch for the non-metric.
Boat Bluff’s 677mm is about 27 inches. In one month. Toronto had 328% of normal. Triple.
Top 10 Wettest Stations in Canada by % of Normal. (Only stations with EC Normals)
Province | Station | Year | Month | Precipitation (mm) | Precipitation % of Normal |
ONT | TORONTO | 2013 | 2 | 165.4 | 328 |
SASK | LEROY | 2013 | 2 | 27 | 244 |
ONT | TORONTO LESTER B. PEARSO | 2013 | 2 | 92 | 216 |
SASK | QUAPPELLE 1 | 2013 | 2 | 25.1 | 212 |
ONT | WROXETER | 2013 | 2 | 117.9 | 211 |
QUE | GASPE A | 2013 | 2 | 121.8 | 206 |
ONT | FOLDENS | 2013 | 2 | 98.4 | 192 |
SASK | DUVAL | 2013 | 2 | 20.6 | 186 |
NU | RANKIN INLET A | 2013 | 2 | 16.2 | 183 |
NWT | FORT SIMPSON A | 2013 | 2 | 31.6 | 181 |
Top 10 Wettest Stations by amount of precipitation. Any station is eligible. NA means EC does not calculate normals.
Province | Station | Year | Month | Precipitation (mm) | Precipitation % of Normal |
BC | BOAT BLUFF | 2013 | 2 | 677.2 | 147 |
BC | ZEBALLOS MURAUDE CREEK | 2013 | 2 | 473.9 | NA |
BC | TOFINO A | 2013 | 2 | 469.6 | NA |
BC | ESTEVAN POINT | 2013 | 2 | 430.8 | 125 |
BC | PRINCE RUPERT MONT CIRC | 2013 | 2 | 430.7 | NA |
BC | ADDENBROKE ISLAND | 2013 | 2 | 425.4 | NA |
BC | LENNARD ISLAND | 2013 | 2 | 419.5 | 120 |
BC | BELLA BELLA | 2013 | 2 | 396 | NA |
BC | PORT ALICE | 2013 | 2 | 387.2 | 101 |
BC | TAHSIS VILLAGE NORTH | 2013 | 2 | 370.5 | NA |
By my calculations, 2012 was one of the top 10 wettest years on record for BC going back to 1900.
Correct!
Using only stations Environment Canada calculates normals for, and just doing a mean of all the stations Percent of Normal Precipitation, this is the top 10
Wettest Years
Year % of Normal Precipitation
1997 124.4165
1893 114.7241
2007 112.7643
1968 111.8933
1996 111.4413
2012 110.7327
1980 110.2851
1948 110.2197
1990 109.3337
1983 109.2476
Driest Years:
Year % of Normal Precipitation
1929 67.22991
1925 72.64692
1928 73.16635
1952 74.63889
1930 75.07143
1938 75.51724
1922 75.54098
1943 77.65633
1904 78.71304
1944 80.42070
Oops, I should have replied here and not below.
I have my own way of calculating the wettest, driest, hottest,, coldest, etc. years. I form a matrix and compare all weather stations against all other years for which each weather station existed. My final answer is a percentage relative to other years. If I get more time I’ll turn this into more meaningful variable such as % of normal. (see link: http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=49469)
With my method, the 10 wettest years in BC since 1890 were (it’s interesting how we both pegged 2012 as the 6th wettest):
1990
1997
1996
1999
1968
2012
1893
1971
2007
1995
The 10 driest were:
1929
1930
1922
1952
1943
1928
1938
1926
1925
1970
It has just occurred to me that you were talking about February? My calculation was based on the annual precipitation, which might help explain some of the differences.
I did Annual. But EC only calculates % of normal for a select groups of weather stations.
If you check my list “Top 10 Wettest Stations by amount of precipitation”, 6 of the 10 have NA in the right hand column meaning EC does not calculate Normals for them.