VANCOUVER – A series of pacific storms will cross the B.C. coast this week.
An intense jet stream over the Pacific is gathering very warm moist air from southern latitudes. A subtropical-influenced airstream will bombard the mountains of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland from Monday through Thursday morning.
The first two storms, starting Monday afternoon, will bring lots of rain to Metro Vancouver and Howe Sound. A rainfall warning is in effect with northern sections of Metro Vancouver expecting to get up to 50 mm. The North Shore Mountains could get even more. The hardest hit areas will be the higher elevations on the North Shore mountains and Howe Sound with 80 to 110 millimetres possible by tomorrow afternoon. Overnight, pockets of brief and really intense rain will fall and could cause flash flooding, pooling water on the roads and washouts of rivers and creeks.
A third storm will follow on Wednesday and with river levels already high and the ground so saturated, the potential for more flooding is a concern.
The ministry of Forest Lands and Natural Resource Operations Rivers Forecast Centre has issued a “high streamflow advisory” for the South Coast, including:
- North Shore (Seymour, Lynn, Capilano, and Coquitlam Rivers and surrounding small streams)
- Howe Sound, Sea‐to‐Sky Corridor, and Sunshine Coast (including Squamish River, Lillooet River, Stawamus River, and surrounding small streams)
- Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley (including Nicomekl River, Chilliwack River, Coquihalla River, Alouette River, Stave River and surrounding small streams)
Along with the rain, high winds will pound the B.C. coast, with gusts 90 km/h off Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands by Monday night. These high winds could cause power outages and down trees.
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