B.C. gets more rain. The Prairies have more sunshine.

I recently returned from a trip to B.C. I’d never been there in December, but now that I have, I can confirm what I have suspected all along: winter there is one long, damp shrug. Grey skies, steady rain, flooding, and an atmospheric heaviness that doesn’t make me want to live there.

Personally? I’ll take a sunny minus 30 day on the Prairies over Vancouver’s dark skies.

It’s not just my Prairie bias talking, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are much sunnier.

Vancouver gets about 1,938 hours of sunshine a year. Winnipeg gets roughly 2,353. Regina clocks in at 2,338 hours, Saskatoon at 2,268. One of the sunniest cities in Canada is Estevan with 2,404 hours.

On average, Winnipeg enjoys about 316 sunny days annually, compared with Vancouver’s 154 rainy ones.

B.C.s  proximity to the ocean means more moisture in the air, which means more clouds and more precipitation.

Vancouver averages 1,189 millimetres of precipitation a year. Regina? About 390. Saskatoon? 354.

The Coastal and Rocky Mountains block the moisture-filled winds, forcing the air to dump its snow and rain before the air can travel into Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which are under what is called a rain shadow.

The jet stream, which can park high pressure over the Prairie region causes the air to sink, discouraging clouds from forming, leaving the sky that perfect cinematic blue we love. But even though we get more sun in the winter, that doesn’t mean we can forget our toque and mitts at home.

When storms do roll through the Prairies, like Alberta clippers, Colorado lows, or summer thunderstorms, they tend to move along within a day or two.

So, the extra sun we get on the Prairies means it will always be a snow shovel for me, and not an umbrella.