B.C. will get lots of snow this winter but Metro Vancouver won’t be hit hard like last year

British Columbia is set to get lots of snow this winter but it appears Metro Vancouver won’t see as many snowy days as it did last year.

In the eastern part of the province, residents will see colder than normal temperatures for the season.

But near the coast, temperatures will be near normal, meaning warmer and wetter.

The wintry weather for much of the province will be good news for the ski hills but Global BC meteorologist Mark Madryga said this winter will not be as severe as last year, especially for the south coast.

This weekend, a strong storm hit B.C., bringing heavy snow, rain and strong winds.

Madryga said there will be a break in the weather Monday but the next storm will roll in Tuesday morning.

By mid-week, temperatures on the south coast are expected to be around 15 C.

Following last winter, the City of Vancouver is modifying its snow response plans.

This year, staff say changes include expanding coverage of snow removal areas to include pedestrian pathways, arterial corner ramps, bus stops, and priority laneways to assist in garbage collection.

They are adding traffic cameras in priority snow-response routes and locations, training more drivers so the city has more crew members to call on, putting more winter tires on all non-commercial city fleet vehicles and expanding its fleet to include 10 small dump trucks, four municipal utility vehicles and six sidewalk snow blowers.

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The city is also implementing a three-tier priority route schedule. Areas designated as priority one will be cleared in less than 12 hours, those marked as priority two will be cleared in less than 48 hours and those marked as priority three will be cleared in up to seven days.

The city also wants to increase salt supplies after concerns were raised last year about the supply and distribution.

Last winter, the City of Vancouver spent $13.7 million on snow removal and supplies.

Previously, the city’s snow budget was $780,000 with a contingency. This past July, council approved a budget increase of $840,000, bringing the total to $1.62 million.

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