During the past 25 years, no one has examined the weather patterns of Squamish closer than Jason Ross.
The man behind the popular @Squamishweather Twitter account is the official Environment Canada weather watcher for Squamish. Over the years he’s seen almost everything imaginable in the local skies.
But it was a series of fortuitous circumstances that saw Ross take over the position at the age of only 12.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the federal government began closing manned weather stations all over the country due to budget restraints, and Squamish was no exception.
The old station, which was located at the Squamish Municipal Airport, officially closed its doors on June 30, 1991, but not before a young Jason Ross became familiar with the station and those working inside it.
“In the late 1980s, when I was in elementary school, one of the teacher aides introduced me to the guys working at the Squamish weather station,” he said. “That’s how my interest started.”
Ross would return to visit the station over the years after that first visit.
After the station closed, he heard about a new weather-watching program starting up. “After the station had closed, my folks had some friends who went to a boat show in Vancouver and Environment Canada had a booth there,” he said. “There was literature there for people to sign up as part of Canada’s volunteer weather-watcher program, and they brought it back for me. I wrote off to it and got a response back and a few weeks later, I ended up getting the old equipment from the Squamish station.”
He received a box for measuring temperature and a rain gauge and officially became the new weather watcher of Squamish.
“That was my start at age 12 into measuring the weather in Squamish,” he said.
From that point on, Ross became the only human observer of weather in Squamish for Environment Canada.
“When I was in high school it was a pretty basic job,” he said. “I’d go out at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., measure the rainfall or snowfall or record the temperature and write it into an official form. If there was a storm, I would call it in.”
Ross said over the years, Squamish has had some incredible weather events. The flood in 2003 and a weird weather year in 1989 top his list.
“The flood in 2003 is the top dog,” he said. “I was constantly letting them know of the problem areas and giving them reports on effects. We had 454.8 mm of rain in five days. Another memorable moment was on Feb. 1, 1989, when we had an Arctic outflow and had one of the coldest outbreaks we’ve ever had.”
Ross said power was out for about a week and it got down to -16C, with 65 km/h winds blowing from the north. He said a thunderstorm in 1989 was also remarkable.
“We had one thunderstorm that dropped about 1,500 lighting strikes,” he said. “Anyone who still lives around here would remember it – it started a lot of fires.”
In 1995, a snowstorm hit the entire south coast of B.C. and blanketed Squamish with about a foot and a half of champagne powder, which Ross said caused tons of problems for people to get around.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in Squamish was 38C back on Sept. 3, 1988 and the lowest was -21C on Jan. 21, 1969. Ross explained that data goes back 35 years at the airport, and there are other sites that have recordings that go back to the 1960s, but there are some gaps in between.
He said his job today has become easier due to technology, but he still likes going out in the field and recording and tracking what is happening in the skies.
“I’m basically looking for what Environment Canada wants,” he said. “I report snow amounts, freezing rain, ice pellets – anything that can be a hazard to the road. They can see some things on webcams but they’re limited; they still need a human to confirm things. I have my own measuring equipment now and send them pictures and just let them know what’s going on.”
Ross, who works for Carney’s Waste Systems as his day job, said it all comes back to the passion he developed at a young age.
“I was always looking into the skies, but I just love all of the seasons here,” he said. “I look up into the sky and see a cloud and I think it’s incredible a cloud can produce a massive amount of rain.”
He said another reason why he loves what he does is that every day is distinctive.
“You never see anything that’s exactly the same – it’s always different,” he said. “The weather is always changing. You’ll never see two storms that are identical.”
Ross also was an early adopter of Twitter, starting the @squamishweather account back in 2009. He regularly posts updates and encourages others to tweet out what they see using the hashtag #BCStorm.
“It’s actually a valuable tool for forecasters,” he said.
He said it’s an honour to work with Environment Canada and noted the amount of effort that goes into creating forecasts.
“Technology makes it so easy for us to find out weather information today, but I would trust Environment Canada for the most reliable forecast,” he said. “If people only knew what went into making forecasts. So much information is included.”
Ross said he’s just doing his part to help get information out there.
“I don’t look for fanfare or try to be a hero,” he said. “One of the slogans of the volunteer weather watcher is to provide an invaluable service to forecasters and the general public. We help pinpoint where severe weather is taking place and try to help people out. But it’s just something I like to do and have been doing it for a long time.”
He added that one day someone will have to take over his post, but he hopes it isn’t anytime soon.
“I would hope that if I retire someone else would take it on – but I don’t plan on retiring,” he said, laughing.
Follow Jason Ross on Twitter @squamishweather for timely updates on what is going on in the Squamish skies.
