A mixed and messy bag of weather coming to B.C.’s South Coast early this week
Rain, freezing rain and snow — a mixed bag of precipitation hit the B.C. South Coast on Sunday, with more in store early this week.
Environment Canada issued a smorgasbord of special weather statements and warnings Sunday.
In the Fraser Valley, a winter storm warning predicting snow and freezing rain was in effect, while Metro Vancouver residents were told to prepare for a “mix of wintry weather.”
In Vancouver “we’re holding steady at rain, but we’re getting reports of rain mixed with snow,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Jonathan Bau on Sunday evening. “The temperature is critical. We’re talking half-a-degree difference between snow and rain.”
Motorists should be extra careful on their morning commute on the Coquihalla Highway and the Sea to Sky Highway, where about 15 centimetres of snow is expected to fall overnight and into Monday morning, leading to low visibility and hazardous driving conditions.
Wet flurries could continue today, but the chances of that are diminishing as an Arctic ridge of high pressure pushes the Pacific system farther south to Washington state. That means the B.C. South Coast has a stronger likelihood of seeing clouds instead of precipitation, said Bau, with only a 30-per-cent chance of flurries Tuesday, instead of the 60 per cent originally forecast.
Once that ridge sets in, the temperature is expected to fall mid-week with sunny skies, dry conditions and lows of -7 C overnight. Another round of precipitation will be coming in time for the weekend, but whether that means rain or snow, or rain mixed with snow, is simply too early to tell, said Bau.