Atmospheric river strands cars, motorists, closes roads Monday

An atmospheric river brought heavy rain and strong winds to B.C.’s South Coast Monday.

Localized flooding stranded cars and motorists, closed roads and even forced the closure of Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon.

That stretch reopened to traffic around 9:30 a.m.

1:08 B.C. South Coast’s wettest regions following atmospheric river

Environment Canada said the weather system brought as much as 132 millimetres of rain in the last 24 hours, reported at Kennedy Lake on Vancouver Island.

The Lower Mainland recorded the most rain in Port Mellon on the Sunshine Coast, which topped out at 102 millimetres, followed by Mission with 97 millimetres, Porteau Cove with 91 millimetres and Pitt Meadows with 90 millimetres.

In the Home Depot parking lot in Burnaby, about a dozen cars were almost floating away as a day’s worth of torrential rain caused flooding in the low-lying area.

The rain began mid-morning, and by the afternoon, catch basins couldn’t keep up.

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3:04 Atmospheric river brings heavy rainfall to Metro Vancouver

Drivers said the hardest part was the visibility in the pounding rain.

Here is a look at the rainfall totals from Environment Canada.