UPDATED 9:30PM – Ex-Anna moves north – rain tonight tomorrow – Hopeful for Halloween

UPDATE 9:30PM:

The special weather statement has been ended.

Solander Island odd the North coast of the Island has reported sustained winds of 60knots (110kph) or more for the past 3 hours . There is still a wind warn for northern sections of the east coast but the worst should be mostly over.

UPDATE 2PM:

Here is the Special Weather Statement just updated from Environment Canada

 

1:30 PM PDT Monday 27 October 2014
Special weather statement in effect for:

  • Inland Vancouver Island

Rain and wind tonight.

A typical October low pressure system will cross the BC North Coast tonight. The path of the low has prompted wind warnings for most areas on the outer coastline north of and including North Vancouver Island.

Tropical storm Ana weakened and was absorbed into this system over the Pacific. Despite the tropical influence, this storm is not as powerful as the system that knocked out the power throughout the Lower Mainland last week.

The fast-moving cold front accompanying this low will cross the South Coast tonight. Wind warnings for sustained or steady winds to 70 km/h have been issued for East Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. Wind gusts can be 25 percent higher than the steady wind forecast.

The Pacific storm prediction centre does not expect to extend the wind warning to any other public forecast regions. Rainfall from this system will not reach the rainfall warning criteria in any region. However, given the tropical influence on the storm, rainfall may be intense at times…Approaching 5 to 10 mm per hour and as high as 20 mm per hour across the mountain peaks.

The public is advised to monitor future forecasts and warnings as warnings may be required or extended.

UPDATE 12PM:  

Just to clear up some confusion, we are *not* being hit by a hurricane or tropical storm. The waters off the PacNW are too cold to support a tropical storm of any type.

The system is actually called a post tropical cyclone or extratropical cyclone. Here are the relevant bits from the final central pacific hurricane centre advisory issued yesterday.

“ANA WILL CONTINUE TO TRACK RAPIDLY NORTHEAST TODAY…WITH AN INITIAL MOTION ESTIMATE OF 060/40 KT. THE FORWARD MOTION OF THE CYCLONE IS EXPECTED TO SLOW CONSIDERABLY TONIGHT AND MONDAY AS IT INTERACTS…AND EVENTUALLY MERGES…WITH AN EXTRATROPICAL GALE LOW CURRENTLY TO ITS NORTH. THE RESULTANT LOW IS FORECAST TO GRADUALLY WEAKEN BEFORE MOVING ASHORE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA ON TUESDAY…AND DISSIPATING INLAND. “

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The news outlets have really latched onto “Hurricane Anna” coming our way. Thankfully, it’s not actually a hurricane anymore and it won’t be bringing any really serious weather for most of us.

Anna has been absorbed into a vigorous, but not unusual band of rain now about to impact us. While early runs suggested the remant low of Anna might move right across the Island, now they have the associated low going toward Haida Gwaii. It’s at the top left corner of the image below.
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The moisture it brings should still be pretty good though and it will bring wind to exposed areas of the Island so I hopefully you don’t need to take the ferries tonight and tomorrow.

Showers begin by 11AMIMG_4956-0.GIF

Heaviest rain begins 5-8PM

IMG_4957-0.GIF

Don’t expect wind in the Valley

With the low not impacting the Island directly I will be surprised if we see much wind here. The greatest chance for strong winds will be between 5PM and 8PM.

Rain totals
Between 5PM and 5PM Monday/Tuesday we should get 30-40mm

IMG_4958-0.GIF

A dry Halloween
Halloween is looking good right now. There will be some showers around the area though so we will have to keep an eye on it… But for now, there is no rain predicted for all of Friday.

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