Bad luck or science? B.C.'s seemingly endless fall storms, explained
Every fall, British Columbia is hit by a barrage of stormy weather, as if an atmospheric freight train is stationed directly over the province... and that's actually kind of true.
Fall is known as the wettest season in British Columbia, and with good reason. A seemingly endless stream of fall storms seems to batter the coastal province each year, with fall 2026 being no exception.
Fall storm season in B.C. typically starts at the end of October, and the 2026 season has started off strong with back-to-back-to-back atmospheric river events. A relentless deluge of rain brought landslides, flooding, outages, and evacuation alerts to parts of the province in under a week.
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But why does B.C. get hit with so many fall storms? Is it just bad luck?
"Think of it as two seasons colliding head on," says The Weather Network meteorologist Rhythm Reet. "The Arctic plunges into a deep freeze and the tropics hold onto their summer heat; the giant temperature gap supercharges the winds above us."
This essentially turns the jet stream into an atmospheric freight train, continuously pulling in moisture-laden low-pressure systems from the Pacific right over the province.
British Columbia's topography doesn't help, either. As the air moves inland from the coast, it's forced upward thanks to the mountains. The air then rapidly cools and condenses until all of the moisture it was carrying falls over the province as rain or alpine snow, depending on the freezing level.
So, no, B.C.'s seemingly endless storms have nothing to do with luck. It's just science!
Written with files from Rhythm Reet, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, and Mia Gordon, a video journalist at The Weather Network.