British Columbia coast storm, Digi Mart USA News (British Columbia, Canada): The third in a series of storms is heading for British Columbia, after wild weather knocked out power to thousands, triggered evacuations and left one person dead over the weekend.
Global BC meteorologist Mark Madryga said a series of Pacific storms will move through the B.C. coast this week, bringing a prolonged period of heavy rainfall along with strong, gusty winds at times.
Significant rainfall accumulations are expected, with upslope terrain and higher elevations receiving the heaviest amounts of precipitation.
This rainfall event comes on the heels of several low-pressure systems that have moved through the region in recent days, already bringing substantial amounts of precipitation to parts of the coast, Madryga said. There is still uncertainty regarding exact rainfall amounts and areal coverage, and rain and wind warnings will be issued over the next few days in many regions with each weather system.
A Pacific front sliding through the coast on Monday will result in some rainfall in the south, but the rain will move through quickly by this evening. The next weather system is stronger and will race onto the B.C.
coast on Tuesday.
Northern Vancouver Island through the North and Central coasts, along with Haida Gwaii, will experience blustery weather overnight through Tuesday, with southeast wind gusts to 110 km/hr. Gusty southeast wind and rain will also dominate the South Coast, with wind increasing to over 80 km/hr gusts in places by Tuesday evening into early Wednesday.
Rain will be widespread on Tuesday into Wednesday morning, Madryga said. SkyTracker forecasts rain totals exceeding 100 millimetres in West Vancouver between now and Wednesday morning, with 30 to 50 millimetres in Metro Vancouver over that period.
With further moisture arriving over the remainder of the week on the B.C. coast, total rainfall predicted from Monday to Friday will be significant, Madryga added.
With very mild flow from the subtropics, the freezing level will rise to 2,000 metres on the South Coast on Monday afternoon and to almost 3,000 metres on Tuesday afternoon.
A high streamflow advisory is in effect for the South and Central Coasts, issued by the BC River Forecast Centre.
