B.C.’s Lower Mainland expected to see more snow during Friday's rush hour
B.C.’s Lower Mainland expected to see more snow during Friday's rush hour
COQUITLAM, B.C. -
More snow is in the forecast Friday for British Columbia’s south coast, days after a significant storm that brought rush hour traffic in the Lower Mainland to a standstill.
Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, the Sunshine Coast, Howe Sound and the Southern Gulf Islands.
A low pressure system will brush the south coast and is expected to bring two to five centimeteres of snow.
Meteorologists are warning of slippery road conditions due to snow and temperatures near freezing.
“Although the amounts today are not really anticipated to be just as much as Tuesday's amount, we can anticipate the snow to impact the afternoon or this evening's commute as it can be a snow-rain mix, causing things to become slushy and dicey,” said Derek Lee, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
There’s also a risk of freezing rain in some areas.
“Snowfall accumulations will generally be light given precipitation rate, strength of the outflow winds and the humidity of the near surface atmospheric layer,” wrote Environment Canada in a weather bulletin.
It says the timing is likely to be during this afternoon's commute and into the evening hours.
“This event will have significantly less snow than Tuesday's event,” wrote the weather agency.
Earlier this week, a significant dump of snow across the Lower Mainland caused commuter chaos.
Icy conditions triggered a series of accidents which shutdown most of the arterial routes in the region.
That included the Alex Fraser Bridge where many drivers were stranded for upwards of eight hours, some even opted to stay in their vehicles overnight.
“The ground wasn't super cold at the time and then there was a bit of dusting of snowfall before the main bulk came. So maybe there was a little bit of a melt during the day from the salt with a little bit of snow before that huge dump came. So it was kind of icy before the main dump of snow came,” said Lee.
BCAA says it handled more than 4500 roadside assistance calls on Tuesday and Wednesday, a 40 per cent increase compared to a typical day.
A number of local politicians are now calling for a snow summit.
They’d like the ministry of transportation, TransLink, contractors, paramedics, local cities and their mayors to get together and determine what went wrong and how to prevent a disaster like that from happening again.
Environment Canada says don’t put your snow shovel away just yet. it’s a La Nina year, meaning more snow is likely.
“We can see a little bit of warm up beginning next week and it will be a gradual warm up. So don't count on it being totally just rain yet in the forecast next week,” said Lee.
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s St John Alexander and Abigail Turner
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