Milder temperatures in our future
The recent blast of snow and ice across the Lower Mainland will hang on until today but milder weather could arrive soon.
Environment Canada predicted Thursday that a significant winter storm would arrive overnight, bringing snow, freezing rain and rain to much of the West Coast.
Some of that freezing rain was expected to hit parts of Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Howe Sound, said David Jones, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
The freezing rain shouldn’t last long in Vancouver, but could linger in eastern parts of the Fraser Valley toward Hope, until mid-Saturday, he said. “The Arctic ridge is breaking down, our cold spell is about to end, but not before a bit of grief.”
Metro Vancouver could receive between two and 10 centimetres of snow today, before it turns to rain, he said, predicting a high of 5 C.
Parts of the north coast could see “blizzardlike” conditions, Jones added.
“The [ snowfall] amounts could be fairly hefty.”
The Fraser Valley could get an additional five to 10 cm of snow today, he added.
Milder temperatures in Vancouver should last until the middle of the week, according to the forecast, which is predicting highs of 7 C between Saturday and Wednesday.
Severe weather continued in the Fraser Valley on Thursday, causing several school closures in Abbotsford, and closing all public schools in Mission and Chilliwack.
All campuses of the University of the Fraser Valley were closed for the day as well.
The extreme weather brought one silver lining, said Abbotsford police spokesman, Const. Ian Macdonald.
“In the last 24 hours we had only one criminal code violation,” he said, describing a man who “shimmied” up an icy pipe on the back of a building to steal a security camera.
The nasty weather tends to keep everyone — including criminals — indoors, Macdonald said. Each day, officers look at a colourcoded crime map during their morning meeting. “Our map looked much like Abbotsford did yesterday. It was a whiteout,” he said.
With nasty weather expected to continue “we want to remind drivers again ... to stay off the roads, if possible” Macdonald said.
Drivers without the proper tires shouldn’t be driving in this weather, said Ken Cousin, the associate vice- president of road assist for BCAA. “Ice is just plain dangerous.”
He said BCAA gets roughly 2,000 calls a day this time of year from around the province — about half of those are in the Lower Mainland.
Calls went up between 30 and 35 per cent when the cold snap hit, he said. “Yesterday, when it got really cold, we saw a 50- per- cent increase.”
Many of the 3,500 calls across the province yesterday included battery problems, frozen locks and damaged tires caused by cars sliding into curbs, he said.