Drizzle and Clouds Today. Rain and gusty wind starts early Friday.

The switch is on and clouds are rolling in in preparation for a rainy weekend.

Expect a damp Thursday morning with drizzle before the fog breaks. It will probably feel humid through the day as it will still be reasonably warm with a high up to 18°C.

Rain timeline Friday

Rain begins around 4AM Friday for Port Alberni and the rest of the north central Island. Earlier on the West Coast. It also reaches into Lake Cowichan by 6AM but misses Nanaimo and Victoria and regions between.

The whole Island is finally engulfed by the 1-2PM period.

Totals Friday around 20-30mm for Port Alberni and Courtenay. Double for West Coast, half for East.

Rain Scale – Millimeters on top, centi-inches on bottom. (1024cin = 10 inches)

By 5PM on Friday central and northern sections of the east coast should see up to 30mm of rain. Tofino, Ucluelet and Bamfield will have probably double that or more. Nanaimo and Victoria, half that but it’s not over.

By 5AM Saturday up to 60mm will have fallen across the central island. Double that on the west coast, half on the east. Big totals.

Gusty winds too

There will also be some moderate winds along with the rain. Looks like we can expect it to be windiest early Friday morning. You can see the front on the picture below sweeping down the island.

50kt = 90kph
50kt = 90kph

The wind peaks at 35knots (60-70kph) on the water, likely no more than 50kph inland before 11AM in Port Alberni and the West Coast, later for points south.

Much drier Saturday

We get a break between systems Saturday. Port Alberni should stay almost completely dry between Saturday and Sunday morning according to the forecast picture above.

More rain is coming Sunday and Monday but it doesn’t look as intense as Friday. We’ll see if the forecast changes at all.

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