Port Alberni in crosshairs for lots of Rain Thursday, Friday, Saturday – Sunday snow looking weak.

Rainfall Warnings Issued for West, Inland, and East Vancouver Island.

Environment Canada is ramping up its messaging now. We are expecting a very large amount of rain for Port Alberni and Inland areas in particular. Below is the text for the warning for both West Coast and Inland Vancouver Island, the East Coast warning is here.:


Issued at 2020-01-30 18:46 UTC by Environment Canada:
Rainfall warning issued for:

West Vancouver Island, B.C. (081400)
Inland Vancouver Island, B.C. (081500)

Rain, at times heavy, is expected.

Rain will become heavy tonight and continue until Saturday morning as a low pressure system with subtropical moisture moves onto the B.C. coast.

A total of 100 to 150 mm of rain will fall by Saturday morning.

Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.

Localized flooding in low-lying areas is possible.

Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts.


Incoming

The satellite image shows rain has already begun in Port Hardy and other northern parts of the Island and Central Coast.

The system will move down and across southern areas through the afternoon. Expect rain to begin on the West Coast around noon and Port Alberni around 1PM.

By the 1-2PM hour, there should be showers across most of the Island north of Nanaimo.

The rain will stick to the west, inland and north parts of southern Vancouver Island through the night. Parksville, Nanaimo and points south won’t get much rain until Friday morning from around 5-6AM.

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

Rain will pull back again from eastern and southern VI but intensify in Port Alberni on Friday afternoon. The model predicts heavy rain in the 1-2PM hour particularly with 16mm falling in that hour alone.

Rain will spread back over most of the Island by Friday night including Victoria by early Saturday morning.

We get a break by sunrise Saturday morning as the system finally moves off to the east!

Sunday snow less prominent

What looks like a pretty weak system moves through on Sunday morning.

I don’t expect any accumulating snow from that event. There might be some wet flurries in the air but it should be done very quickly. Sunday will be mostly calm and dry.

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