BC weather: atmospheric river coming to South Coast

A flood watch is in place as a lot of rain is set to fall across B.C.’s South Coast, beginning as early as Friday afternoon.

The series of storms will drench the region, but it won’t be anything like the record-breaking 2021 floods.

CityNews 1130 Meteorologist Michael Kuss says the ground is already saturated, the temperatures have warmed up, and the snow is melting, but this isn’t something we haven’t seen before.

“That combined with a fairly consistent band, or several bands, of precipitation coming over the next three to four days, and that’s the area of concern,” he said.

“We’re not talking about 100-millimetre events every day, but the potential is there for, over that three- or four-day stretch, to see 50 millimetres to as much as 150 millimetres across the area.”

He adds those heavier bands of precipitation may also show up further south.

“Through Oregon and northern California, as opposed to across the Lower Mainland. We’ll still get a lot of water, but it’s not the really dangerous 200 millimetres or 300 millimetres event that we’ve seen in the past.”

Kuss adds it looks like Tuesday is when we’ll get a break in this weather pattern.

“But the potential for all the water heading to the South Coast, at this point, is still medium to low. We’re still talking about a significant rain event, or really three rain events.”

As a result, the BC River Forecast Centre has issued a flood watch. It’s in place for Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island — the latter of which can expect to get up to 300 millimetres with the potential of localized areas getting as much as 400 millimetres.

“Temperatures are expected to warm during this period, and snowmelt at lower and mid-elevations will provide additional runoff to rivers,” the centre said in a statement.

“Rivers are expected to rise over the weekend and into next week. Peak river levels are expected to occur in most areas on Sunday to Tuesday and may extend from Tuesday to Thursday for lake-driven rivers.”

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