- Date
- Issued at
- 04:00 PDT/PST
- Created by
- Jon Snow
Spring Snow
A snowy day for high elevation travellers and users as a frontal system tracks across the province today. Freezing levels will initially drop to 800-900 metres with the onset of precipitation early this morning then rise to near 1200 metres in the afternoon behind the warm frontal passage for SW Coastal and SW Inland ranges. The southern interior ranges will see freezing levels near 1000 metres in the morning, rising to 1600 metres with the passage of the warm front with high elevation snow. The Kootenay-Boundary and South Columbia ranges will see the most amount of water-equivalent snow with lesser amounts towards the Cariboos during the day on Saturday. However, convective precipitation Saturday night could add to the totals for the interior ranges.
As the front crosses the Kootenays and the upper flow becomes southwesterly, watch for the Fernie effect to set up with potential for decent snowfall accumulations tonight.
Unsettled weather with alpine flurries on Sunday in the wake of the cold front as a cold airmass settles over the province. Daytime freezing levels will drop into the 1000 metre level for the coastal ranges and 1500 metres for the interior ranges.
As the cold front tracks across the province today, watch the 534-540 dam line (the light blue shaded area) drop from the Cariboo area to the Fernie area by early Sunday morning; this will usher in colder air aloft which destabilises the atmosphere. Convective showers, particularly in the afternoon with the assistance of surface heating, will occur on Sunday.
Drier conditions return on Monday for the interior ranges due to weak flow aloft (widely spaced black lines) combined with weak surface flow (widely spaced isobars on the surface loop in the "Surface Maps" section on the right) - just a few isolated flurries. A trough will bring rain showers and alpine flurries to coastal ranges.
Zonal flow on Tuesday with another shortwave upper trough will continue to bring showers and alpine flurries to the coastal ranges. The precipitation will spread into the interior ranges late on Tuesday or early Wednesday.