Wet Halloween and Saturday Storm

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Thursday looks nice – Rain begins Friday

Thursday will be dry and we might even see some clear blue sky once the high clouds and low fog burn off. The rain won’t be getting on the Island until tonight and it should slide down the Island to the Tofino/Ucluelet and Port Alberni areas by early Friday morning.

Expect rain to start on the West Coast overnight and in Port Alberni just before sunrise.

Rain will intensify through Friday morning with the strongest flow of moisture attacking the central Island in the 11AM-1PM timeframe Friday as you can see below. Total amounts around 40mm in Port Alberni and over 60mm on the West Coast should be expected.

Expect the rain to move off by about 8PM in the Port Alberni area, so a later start for trick or treating should give you more chance of being dry. But this year’s candy cruising definitely looks wet. Below is the picture for 8-11PM Friday night. The front has mostly cleared Port Alberni, but the South Island remains very wet.

Saturday drier, except Cowichan, windy as low comes ashore.

The front will pass over the Island Friday night but it will back up onto the Island again Saturday morning delivering heavy rain again to the Shawnigan Lake and Cowichan Lake areas from about 5AM onward, perhaps even earlier.

By sunrise rain should start up across most of the Island in preparation for the landfall of the weak low (about 100kPa) over the Alberni Valley. Heavy rain will return by noon Saturday for the entire Island as the low comes ashore.

You can see the low just offshore around 11AM Saturday in the image below. It’s not particularly strong or well defined.

Since it will land pretty much at the Alberni Inlet, the strongest winds will be focused a little further south into Juan de Fuca Strait, Port Renfrew, Victoria and perhaps Tsawassen. There could be some very cancellations with this storm on Saturday morning to afternoon.

That said, it will be short lived and the wind and rain should die down Saturday evening. Sunday will see spotty showers, perhaps some thunderstorms in the mountains and blustery westerly winds on exposed shores.

Have a fun Halloween and Go Blue Jays!!