I just have to record these weather warnings for posterity:

HOWE SOUND

11:26 PM PDT FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2003



HEAVY RAINFALL WARNING FOR HOWE SOUND CONTINUED. FURTHER RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 100 TO 150 MM FOR HOWE SOUND AND 50 TO 80 MILLIMETRES FOR THE REST OF THE REGIONS TONIGHT AND SATURDAY.



THIS IS A WARNING THAT HEAVY RAIN IS IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.



A NEARLY STATIONARY FRONT OVER THE SOUTH COAST WILL CONTINUE TO BRING HEAVY RAIN TO MOST OF THE SOUTH COAST. PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS OF 60 TO 140 MM HAVE BEEN RECORDED IN THE LAST 24 HOURS AT SOME STATIONS ON THE INNER COAST. FURTHER AMOUNTS OF 50 TO 80 MM FOR THE INNER SOUTH COAST AND AS MUCH AS 100 TO 150 MM FOR HOWE SOUND CAN BE EXPECTED TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. MEANWHILE RAIN HAVE EASED OFF TONIGHT OVER THE EXTREME SOUTH COAST...BUT MORE RAIN IS EXPECTED WITH AMOUNTS NEAR 30 TO 40 MM FOR VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA AND THE LOWER FRASER VALLEY ON SATURDAY. RAIN WILL TAPER OFF IN ALL AREAS LATE SATURDAY AS THE FRONT MOVES SOUTH AND WEAKENS.

At the moment it is actually NOT raining. We had 147 mm of rain recorded in Squamish yesterday in total. There is dangerous flooding conditions now there at the top of Howe Sound. You would not believe the water pouring off the land at the moment. These are record rainfalls. Yesterday Vancouver recorded it's highest ever single day rainfall at 62 mm, but it has been substantially more here in Howe Sound as the clouds pile into the fijord and dump their rain closer to the mountains. The air is really warm, probably 20 degrees C right now. Sattelite phots show a stream of warm wet air coming straight from Hawaii, a classic Pineapple Express. The difference this time is that it has stalled over the coast, and it has just rained and rained and rained. By the time the system is through, we will have had upwards of 300 mm of rain fall on us in a three day period. That's one foot. If it was snow it would translate into three meters which is more than nine feet. That's what we are talking about here. It's just unreal how much water is falling from the sky.



On another note, as we remember this day for its moisture content, we bid farewell tonight to Miriam and Remy who are the owners of La Mangerie, an eatery that was an important live music venue here on Bowen. They are leaving for Holland and the restaurant is closing, and with it goes a great Bowen musical incubator. Everyone who plays anything has at some point been on stage at La Mangerie. I played there a number of times. The closing of La Mangerie represents a real loss to the Bowen music community. We shut it up tonight in a really appropriate fashion with a band featuring Moritz Behm on fiddle, Teun Scheut on guitar, Gino Rutigliano on bass and Buff Allen on drums, joined by Bazil Graham and Julie Vik on vocals. This is a band that came together around the Bowen Island Music Exchange CD we put out in the summer, an effort that was largely born out of the mix and match nature of gigging at La Mangerie.



Hopefully new owners will keep the music, but one never knows. Good luck to Miriam and Remy.