Well over a foot of snow on Gabriola Island

We went out for a drive today around the island.  Up on the highest parts of the island, at the top of Brickyard and also up on top of Pat Burns Road,  there is 1 1/2 to 2 feet of snow sitting.  On Orlebar Point there is hardly any evidence of them having any snow.  Most of the power has been restored now. Some of the homes on the island had been without electricity for 5 days.  At the peak of the outages caused by this storm,  BC Hydro said that there were 25,000 BC Hydro customers without power.

In an article in the local newspaper "Gabriola Sounder" it states that " it has been one of the driest November to January periods in at least twenty years.  The period of November to January is critical for recharging Gabriola's natural storage of fresh water in the fractured rock aquifer.  According to the historic rainfall for November to January rainy period, the rainfall for each of those months was the lowest, of the last 22 years. The good news is the island has received more rainfall than the average for the month of February."

It seems that this past rain and snowfall will make it a record moisture drop for February.  Gariola usually gets 30-45 inches of rain per year.