Mix of Rain and Snow over the Island
Both Environment Canada and UWash are pretty solid on predicting snow or flurries for all parts of Vancouver Island on Saturday night and into Sunday but also rain. So we should expect a very mixed bag with some areas only seeing sleet and some having significant snow.
Before then we will dry out and cool down with highs of just 4ºC today and Friday and lows as far down as -4ºC with windchills on the east coast of -9ºC!
The real action starts Saturday night as a front moves down the Island. It should get to the Central and Southern parts of the Island around 7 to 10PM Saturday, then the fun starts!
The images below have rain in greys and snow in greens. You can see the rain at the head of the front as it sweeps down the Island Saturday night.
It should start to snow in Campbell River and Courtenay by 10PM.
More regions will turn to snow as the night wears on.
It is very hard to predict which low-lying areas will get significant snowfall and which will only get sleet and some wet slush on the ground. Campbell River looks set to get the most and Victoria and Port Alberni the least.
Notice in the image above the way the wind barbs are positioned. First vertically with the barbs on the bottom (southerly), then switching to diagonal with the barbs toward the top left (northwest).
Now look at how it changes early Sunday Morning:
Off the West Coast there are strong Northwesterly winds. But in the Salish Sea there are *easterly* winds showing out of the Fraser Valley.
By midday Sunday, those easterly outflow winds are continuing and the only precipitation left looks like potential Strait effect snow in Nanaimo/North Cowichan areas.
We could have areas with large accumulations of snow. And others with none.
Hooray for West Coast Winters! 🙂
Now go bundle up!
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