A White Christmas? Dream on
Warm weather and rain is coming to the Lower Mainland this week
With Metro Vancouver blanketed with fresh snowfall on Sunday, hopes are high for a white Christmas.
Unfortunately, weather watchers don’t have good news for those dreaming of a winter wonderland next weekend.
Starting Monday, the sub-zero temperatures — as well as the crisp dry days — will recede, making way for alternating rain showers brought in by a push of maritime air mass.
Chances of snow on Christmas Day are highly unlikely, said Environment Canada meteorologist Cindy Yu.
“The snow-making mechanism is cold air, and that cold air has to come from the Arctic or Siberia, and unfortunately, I don’t see that cold air toward the end of the week.”
If there is precipitation, she said, it’ll fall as rain. There’s a tiny chance that rain could turn into wet snow or flurries overnight, but that’s unlikely to stick, she said.
White Christmases are rare in Metro Vancouver. Historically, Vancouver has only a 10 per cent chance of seeing snow on the ground on Christmas Day.
So on Sunday, Lower Mainland residents enjoyed the white stuff while it lasted.
Hills of all kinds — backyards, ski hills and parks — were packed, with Environment Canada issuing a snowfall warning for up to 20 cm of snow for the B.C. coast.
Milder Pacific air will flush out the chilly Arctic air that has settled over Metro Vancouver for two weeks starting Sunday night, and it’s likely there will be a “complete changeover to rain” for most of the south coast by Monday morning, the weather advisory stated.
But the snow will remain north of Squamish, where it will stay cold.
As the brunt of the storm left some motorists spinning their wheels, tow truck drivers were in high demand.
Tow truck driver Ken Monkhouse, who works for Jamie Davis Truck & Auto Ltd. in Hope, was working on the Coquihalla Highway Sunday afternoon. He said the road was very slick and heavy fog was making for poor visibility.
He said they have had fewer crashes on the Coquihalla recently, and he credits the road crews.
“The highway maintenance contractor is doing a really good job,” he said.
But despite the road being cleared, Monkhouse said drivers need to adjust to the winter conditions.
“It is icy in sections but not too bad,” he said. “Once it gets dark and the snow hits, it will be a lousy place to have to drive through.”
On Sunday, for the second night in a row, the City of Vancouver opened warming shelters to provide refuge from the mix of snow, slush and rain.
More than 50 people used two community centres and the Khalsa Diwan Society building Saturday night, where hot drinks, water and a place to sleep was available — although there were no cots or bedding.
At the Greater Vancouver Shelter Strategy, manager Rebecca Bell said they have added an additional 250 extreme-weather beds to help make sure anyone living on the street can be inside overnight.
So far she said no one has been turned away.
“Certainly there has been a lot of effort to get people inside,” she said. “We continue to keep an eye on things — there is still capacity within the system.”
Despite the heavy snowfall, there were no closures reported on the Alex Fraser bridge. After ice bombs fell from the cables during the last snowstorm to hit Metro Vancouver, the bridge was closed for safety reasons.