Update 4PM Saturday — Final Snow Flurries of Winter (hopefully!) through Tuesday

4PM Saturday – East Coast and Greater Victoria Snowfall Warning issued.

No warning has been issued for the Alberni region, so the Special Weather Statement still applies.

Here is the warning for the East coast:

3:34 PM PST Saturday 04 March 2017
Snowfall warning in effect for:

East Vancouver Island
Snowfall, with total amounts of 5 to 10 cm is expected.

Heavy snowfall over southern sections of tonight and Sunday.

Bands of snow associated with a low pressure system offshore will develop over the East Vancouver Island overnight.

Snowfall amounts will be highly variable. The band of snow is expected to develop over southern sections of the region. Southern sections mainly near Nanaimo can expect the highest snowfall amounts of 5 to 10 cm. Elsewhere, up to 5 cm is expected.

Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions. If visibility is reduced while driving, turn on your lights and maintain a safe following distance.

9AM Saturday

Here is the updated Special Weather Statement. Looks like there is patchy snow falling in places around the Island.

A cold and unsettled airmass has settled over the South Coast and will remain in place into early next week. Snow levels will remain low and likely approach sea-level at times. As a result, scattered flurries are possible.

On Saturday night, a more organized band of precipitation is forecast to move up from the south. As it approaches more widespread snow is expected to develop over the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island.

Showery precipitation is usually intermittent but can change in intensity quickly. While often light and brief it can also produce areas of heavy flurries. Local snowfall accumulations of a few centimetres are possible across the region with this unsettled pattern.

Temperatures should return to near seasonal values by mid week. In the meantime, don’t put your snow shovels away just yet.

https://twitter.com/alberniweather/status/838069278662242304

As you can see from the EC forecast the temperatures are supposed to drop enough again for the next few days of precipitation to possibly fall as snow or wet snow.

Environment Canada has issued a Special Weather Statement:

A cold and unsettled airmass will begin to settle over the South Coast late today and remain in place through the weekend and early next week. Freezing levels are expected to lower to near sea-level at times.

The potential for snow will begin tonight and increase for Saturday and Sunday as an area of low pressure develops off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Showery precipitation is usually intermittent but can change in intensity quickly. While often light and brief it can produce areas of heavy flurries. Local snowfall accumulations of a few centimetres are possible across the region with this unsettled pattern.

Rainy and wet snow might start this afternoon and evening but the greatest chance for snow is on Saturday and early next week here are the details:

Friday Rainy afternoon

It is plenty warm already, almost 6ºC this morning, so we should not start with snow. Expect showers to begin before noon and to continue for much of the afternoon.

The Model expects the snow to stay in the mountains as you can see below:

General precip above, snow coverage below.

By nightfall the showers should clear out and the winds should shift, particularly on the East coast, to the East which should signal the cold air and possibility of flurries.

Saturday Thunder Snow?

By Saturday morning temperatures are expected to be around zero so we may be set up for some wet flurries. However, this is a spotty system, so it will be localized. The only time the model shows precipitation over Port Alberni is around noon and into the afternoon… we’ll see how it works out whether this will fall as rain or snow. There is the possibility for it to be quite strong and maybe even feature some thunder or lightning!

Sunday and Monday East Island snow?

Things get a little more interesting on Sunday and Monday for the East Coast.

Just like last weekend and Monday, we have the possibility of a blast of snow for the South Island in the morning.

This repeats possibility a little further north (Nanaimo/Parksville) overnight on Sunday but the signal is not as strong.

We then have a more broad system affecting the North and South portions of the East Coast (but perhaps missing Port Alberni) on Monday afternoon. But we will see how that unfolds in the models over the weekend.

That’s it for now, hope you don’t mind the new layout! The site needed a little bit of a refresh.

TGIF!