Thursday - Dec. 7, 2023 - Reading river levels

🌧 High 8C

Good morning!

I’ve never really gotten into audiobooks. I’m a big reader and I find that information, stories included, stay in my brain a whole lot better if they come in through my eyes instead of my ears. But at some point in the last few years, I got absolutely hooked on The Vinyl Cafe.

It’s not a radio drama (there aren’t any voice actors) or really an audiobook (though there are books of the collected stories.) If you, like me, are also a big fan of the long-running CBC show you can find lots of the stories on Spotify and wherever else you stream music. (My favourite story is probably The Waterslide. Or possibly, Tree Planting.)

– Grace

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Don’t panic: how to properly read this Nooksack River graph

Awareness is a double-edged sword.

For those worried that the Nooksack River will flood again, there’s one piece of information to rule all others.

That information comes in the form of a simple graph of the river’s height near the spot where it occasionally spills north. It’s a graph that can be incredibly useful in the right hands. But it can also cause unnecessary worry and anxiety for those unfamiliar with it.

After 2021’s flood took many by surprise, it’s not unreasonable for residents to seek out their own information.

But even as the Nooksack is likely the flood will be repeated at some point over the coming decades, the odds of any one atmospheric river triggering another massive flood are very low.

So how do you figure out whether the next atmospheric river is one to be worried about? A great resource is a key American graph that depicts the river’s current—and projected—height. It’s not foolproof and it shouldn’t be your only source of information. But it’s some of the best data we have about just how likely it is that Canada will see US water in the near future.

• Today, Tyler teaches chart class.

Related

Need to Know

🎒 Surrey schools are a cautionary tale for nearby cities as population and land values climb [Vancouver Sun]

🚘️ One woman is dead after a car accident in Langley [CTV]

🏍️ Off-roading groups in Chilliwack are calling for the reopening of Gill Bar, a portion of riverside land closed to protect fish habitats [Chilliwack Progress]

🚜 New online spaces are helping protect the mental health of farmers [The Tyee]

🎄 A Christmas tree in Mission’s Centennial Park won’t be lit this year [Mission Record]

🏘️ Langley seniors are facing a housing crunch [Langley Advance Times]

❄️ District of Kent residents who need assistance shovelling snow can sign up for volunteer help from the annual Snow Angels program [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

👉️ The waitlist for cataract surgery has disappeared in Chilliwack [Chilliwack Progress]

🎄 A Langley family has set up their annual Christmas display—with a slightly spooky twist [Langley Advance Times]

💰️ A Langley sawmill will receive $4 million in provincial funding [Langley Advance Times]

🎭️ Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night will hit the stage in Fort Langley next year [Langley Advance Times]

The Agenda

Langley Township looking for museum advisors

Langley Township is looking for volunteers to join its Museum Advisory Group. 

The group’s members, which meet every month, provide insight and advice on “museum-related matters” and share information about events going on in the community. 

The museum that the group will spend a large portion of its time advising on, however, hasn’t opened yet. The Langley Centennial Museum closed for good in 2023 and the museum’s new home, in Fort Langley’s new cultural centre, salishan Place by the River, hasn’t been finished. The new centre was expected to open this year. 

Applications for the Museum Advisory Group will be accepted until Friday, Dec. 22. Find more information online. We wrote about the new museum in 2021. 

SPONSORED BY JAMES & JAMESY

O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy

Fans of Python, Bean, and Seuss… Grab your teacups! 3x London Impresario Winners, James & Jamesy, bring their wildly popular O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy to stages in North Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Mission, and Chilliwack.

Their comic physicality, wordplay, and cleverly crafted interactive elements, is ‘Complete and utter fun!”-CBC

📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Yesterday’s Current Cam hasn’t been guessed correctly yet! It’s not the art at the Vedder River crossing. It’s art, but it’s at another site considerably further west.

Think you know where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form.

🗓 Things to do this week/end

🎶 Concert: The Chilliwack Metropolitan Orchestra will play a Holiday Cafe concert at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Sunday, Dec. 10. Details online.

🎁 Christmas market: Heritage Park in Mission will host the Christmas Gifts Expo market from Friday, Dec. 8 to Sunday, Dec. 10. Details online.

🏔️ Film fest: The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival will come to Mission's Clarke Theatre on Dec. 13 and 14. Details online.

Want even more? Insider members get a comprehensive events listing every Thursday, plus a weekly Saturday round-up edition with behind-the-scenes content. Becoming a member costs less than $2 a week and helps support the ongoing production of The Current’s newsletters and in-depth journalism. Become a member here.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

That’s it!

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