Mountain Weather Forecast

We ease into today's meteorological discussion with some areas of snow over the southern half of B.C. as a weather system (the same one which bombarded the B.C. coast on Sunday and Monday with precipitation) finally departs the province. Clearing skies with some sun is expected especially over Vancouver Island, the Sea to Sky, the South Coast ranges, and the Kootenay-Boundary. Meanwhile some flurries will linger over the Northwest ranges.

However, as quickly as we say goodbye to today's weather system, we will say hello to yet another Pacific storm for Wednesday as the relentless onslaught of Pacific storms continues. The new storm will be once again be packing a punch with its initial focus on the Northwest ranges beginning early Wednesday morning. Heavy snow with freezing levels rising to 1500 metres by Wednesday afternoon are expected. Precipitation will then gradually spread onto the North Rockies, Cariboos, and Columbias during the day on Wednesday with moderate amounts of snowfall. Moisture will continue to spread southwards into the Kootenay-Boundary and Purcells on Wednesday evening.

The storm will arrive on the B.C. south coast on Wednesday afternoon with precipitation intensifying Wednesday night. With freezing levels at 1000 metres, the precipitation will initially start as snow for Vancouver Island, the Sea to Sky, and South Coast ranges. Moderate to heavy snowfall is expected. However freezing levels will rise rapidly to near or above 2000 metres, which means snow will change to rain by Thursday morning. Heavy rain will continue before the storm departs the region Thursday night or early Friday morning.

On Friday some snow persists over the interior ranges from the Alberta Elbow to the US border. The snow eases late on Friday.

Spying into the weekend we see this Pacific storm blitz continuing with another strong storm hamming the province.

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The 500mb flow animation shows an upper low over southern Alaska and an upper trough oriented north/south over the south coast of British Columbia extending into western Oregon. As we advance the animation forward in time we see the upper trough and the associated precipitation move quickly eastward.

Stepping forward into Wednesday we see the approach of our next big storm as a large stream of moisture associated pushes towards the B.C. coast. By Wednesday night and Thursday morning the GDPS 12 hour liquid water equivalent precipitation amounts show very heavy values along the coast (yellows to oranges indicating 25 to 50 mm in 12 hours) to even some extreme values (reds for the west side of Vancouver island indicating 100 mm in 12 hours). Values in the interior remain more moderate to heavy (deep greens indicating 15 to 25 mm in 12 hours).

Stepping further around into Friday we see precipitation values easing as the storm moves eastward. Taking a peak into the weekend we see a plume of moisture associated with another Pacific storm approaching the coast.