Atmospheric river brings ‘tremendous’ amount of rain to B.C. South Coast – BC | Globalnews.ca
An atmospheric river is now expected to stick around until Friday as heavy rain continues to soak B.C.’s South Coast.
“We’ve seen some tremendous amounts of rain up on portions of the Central Coast, up in the river’s inlet area,” Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said.
“They’ve reported about 279 mm of rain since Sunday evening. And even in the Greater Vancouver area, the North Shore Mountains and up and towards Squamish have seen close to 100 mm of precip to this point in time.”
Environment Canada has maintained rainfall warnings for multiple areas of B.C., including the Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Metro Vancouver and west and inland Vancouver Island.
“It looks like this rain will continue through today,” Jonathan Boyd, a hydrologist at B.C.’s River Forecast Centre, said.
“It might have a little bit of a reprieve on Thursday, maybe in the early hours Thursday, but then another wave rolls through Thursday evening into Friday. So the expectation is the concerning levels will occur late Thursday, Friday, maybe even into Saturday.”
Proctor said everyone should be cautious around river banks.
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“Debris flows and mudslides will still be an issue for sure,” he said.
“You know, we put 100 mm into some of these basins and they get very, they’re very flashy oftentimes. Some of those creeks move on very, very rapidly. So getting trees coming down, you know, logs coming down, jamming some of those basins can really lead to debris flow problems.”
A flood watch is also in place for the Central Coast, as rain combined with snow and warmer temperatures could see water levels exceed banks quickly.
Sasquatch Mountain Resort in Agassiz decided to shut down Wednesday and Thursday due to concerns over the weather.
Avalanche Canada is advising backcountry users to stay out of avalanche terrain due to elevated risk.
“Regardless of what terrain you’re going into, read the forecast, make sure you understand what’s written in the forecast so you can plan a trip, plan where your terrain choices match the conditions,” Tyson Rettie, an avalanche forecaster with Avalanche Canada, said.
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