Rainiest Places in Canada

No region of Canada measures as much precipitation as the west coast of British Columbia. And no weather station on that coast comes close to recording the amount of rain that falls into the Mitchell Inlet rain gauge on Moresby Island in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). The deserted beach gathers 6325 mm (20.8 feet) of preciptation a year. Nearly all of that, 99 percent, falls as rain.

Not surprisingly, it rains more often at the soggy island inlet than any other Canadian weather station. Mitchell Inlet averages 275 days a year when it rains or snows. That means, three out of four days there are rainy.

The remote inlet receives 1.3 metres more rain than the next wettest place measured in the country. Coming in second for rainfall is Boat Bluff, located along the Inside Passage of BC's central coast. Boat Bluff registers 5047 mm (16.6 feet) of precipitation a year that falls on 253 days, again almost all rain.

The rankings here are for 1758 weather stations that record precipitation information for Environment Canada. The precipitation data are averages of weather measurements made from 1981 to 2010.

Wettest Canadian Communities

Boat Bluff's rainfall indicates that Klemtu is possibly the rainiest community in Canada. Boat Bluff lies five kilometers north of Klemtu, on a separate island. The Swindle Island village is home to about 460 Kitasoo and Xaixais people.

Farther up the Inside Passage, Hartley Bay measures 4673 mm, over 15.3 feet, of water pelting down each year. The Gitga'at village of 180 year-round residents sits at the confluence of Grenville and Douglas Channels, approximately 140 km south of Prince Rupert.

Hartley Bay is among a select group of BC towns, villages and cities that regularly record over three metres of precipitation a year:

Average annual precipitation for very wet communities in British Columbia:
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
205 Hartley Bay 184.0 4673
169 Tahsis 169.5 4305
207 Port Renfrew 138.0 3505
225 Port Alice 134.9 3427
206 Ucluelet 131.9 3351
208 Tofino 128.8 3271
229 Prince Rupert 120.5 3060

Highest Precipitation in the Rest of Canada

Outside of BC, the Atlantic coast is Canada's wettest region. But it still gets nowhere near the amount of drizzle that deluges the Pacific coast. Here's how much precipitation falls at a sampling of the country's wettest spots:

Average total yearly precipitation
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
164 Wreck Cove Brook, Nova Scotia 76.6 1946
183 Red Harbour, Newfoundland 72.5 1841
147 Pools Cove, Newfoundland 72.0 1828
154 Guysborough, Nova Scotia 71.4 1815
219 Forêt Montmorency, Quebec 62.3 1583
236 St Fortunat, Quebec 60.7 1542
172 Alma, New Brunswick 59.5 1510
163 Allenford, Ontario 50.9 1294
175 New Glasgow, PEI 49.5 1258
149 Blyth, Ontario 49.1 1247
162 Waterton Village, Alberta 43.2 1096

Record Rainfalls

A few places on BC's wet west coast have received more than 300 millimetres of rain in a single day. That's more than some areas of Canada get in a year. This table lists some of the biggest downpours ever recorded for one day in Canada:

Amount of precipitation in one day
Date Place Inches Milli­metres
Jan 26, 1984 McInnes Island, BC 12.6 319
Jan 14, 1961 Seymour Falls, BC 12.4 314
Nov 14, 1991 Mitchell Inlet, BC 12.1 306
Nov 11, 1990 Tahsis, BC 11.8 300
Nov 10, 1990 Seymour Falls, BC 11.8 300
Reference

Environment Canada. Meteorological Service of Canada. Canadian Climate Normals. 1981-2010 Climate Normals & Averages.

Back to Top