Snowfall records could be broken in Metro Vancouver this weekend: Environment Canada
Snowfall warnings have been issued for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, with a heavy dump of snow in the forecast this weekend.
Environment Canada says this blast of winter could break records and is urging people to stay off the roads if possible.
CITIES PREPARING
City crews across the Lower Mainland have really had the upper hand this time around.
They’ve known a storm was coming for days now and, while the weather has been extremely cold, it’s also been dry for the most part.
That’s allowed crews to prepare most streets in advance with salt and brine.
On Friday morning, it was all hands on deck at the Surrey Works Yard and Operations Centre.
There was a steady stream of brining trucks filling up and hitting the road.
The city says it’s well prepared with more than 10,000 tonnes of salt on hand.
When the snow starts to stick Saturday, crews will hit the major routes first.
Since they’ll be able to cover more ground in light traffic, crews are asking people to stay home.
“Of course, during an actual event if the traffic's bad, that can really hinder our response time,” said Matt Brown, the City of Surrey’s street manager.
He says the city faces some unique challenges as well, such as a wide variety of elevation levels.
It was a similar story in Vancouver, where Mayor Ken Sim took to Twitter to say crews have been "fully deployed" to start pre-treating roads ahead of the storm.
WARNINGS ABOUND
Nearly the entire province was under some sort of weather alert Friday, as B.C. was hit with a deep freeze.
Environment Canada says light flakes will start to fall in Metro Vancouver on Saturday afternoon, which will intensify to heavy snow by the evening.
The amount of snow will largely be determined by the strength of the arctic outflow winds.
Total accumulations of 15 to 25 centimetres are possible, while higher elevations may see up to 35.
It’s expected to ease in most areas by Sunday afternoon, with sunny skies in the forecast.
RECORD-SETTING SNOW POSSIBLE
Environment Canada data for the City of Vancouver shows the most snowfall recorded on Feb. 25 since 1938 was 3.6 centimetres in 1955. For Feb. 26, the record was 13.2 centimetres in 1971.
Armel Castellan, an Emergency Preparedness Meteorologist with Environment Canada, says a sudden dump of snow like this is a little out of the ordinary for this time of year.
“This Arctic outflow kind of making its way to the south coast has brought us temperatures that are well below seasonal values—you know, almost 10 degrees below,” he said.
It’s expected to warm up fairly quickly, however. Castellan said the region is likely to see temperatures rise to sit in the mid single digits as the storm passes, making the conditions perfect for snowman building.
Temperatures should be even higher by the middle of next week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.