El Nino has arrived

in Vancouver over the past couple of days. I know it's November and it always rains in November in Vancouver - but what it doesn't usually do is rain and stay warm at the same time. I was out this afternoon in a t-shirt and sandals (after the rain had stopped, although only temporarily).

It feels to me like tropical rain, like the rain you get in the south, in Louisiana or Mexico or Florida, not your regular everyday November west coast rain.

Yesterday afternoon I went out and it was raining. Really raining. You know that old saying it's raining cats and dogs? Well, this was more like cats and dogs and sea lions and maybe even grizzly bears. I was standing on the side of the road and I had to keep looking up to see if I was under a tree.

You know how if it's raining and a little windy and you're under a tree? And giant drops - no, you can't even call them drops, you have to call them deluges - deluges of rain get pushed down out of the tree and onto your head? Well, that's exactly how hard it was raining yesterday afternoon. And again this morning. And again tonight. It's been raining hard enough that - I live at the bottom of a steep hill - the water is coming down the street as if the street were a stream in the spring run-off rather than a street.

This isn't normal but it is amazingly beautiful and astonishingly tempting. El Nino's bringing the warmth - which I love - and the torrential rain - which I also love as long as it's warm. The best of both worlds.

Kate