Started a little early

The snow seemed to get off to a bit of an early start this morning. There was already a bit of snow on the ground when I got up. By 9AM there was about 1cm and light snow in Port Alberni. It was similar elsewhere on the Island with some seeing snow and some not. But now, it is snowing across the entire Island.

Expect this to continue.

Worst appears around 4-6PM for Central Island, a little later on South Island

The latest models from this morning are out and the worst looks to be aimed at Nanoose Bay north to Campbell River. Heavy snow this afternoon and into the evening combined with very strong winds. The sequence of 4 images below start in the 2-3PM hour and end at the 5-6PM hour and show snow in greens and blues, rain in greys.

You can see by the last picture in the 5-6PM hour the back of the system is starting to move down from the north and precipitation is lightening but this will also be the heaviest period on the South Island from Nanaimo to Duncan.

This may also be the strongest period of wind as well.

Please stay off the roads this afternoon and especially this evening.

We could see final totals of 5-10cm for Port Alberni, 10-20cm for Nanaimo and 15-25cm for Courtenay and Campbell River.

Questions for Wednesday

We will be near zero through the afternoon and evening so it’s hard to say at this point when or if we will see a switch to rain. Some areas could see snow showers into Wednesday morning. You will want to be alert for this.

There is also a possibility of more snow Wednesday night south of Nanaimo but it might be too early to be sure on that.

No matter what, expect snow wherever you go, and hopefully, you don’t need to go far.

Stay safe out there. Keep an eye on Environment Canada, and DriveBC. I’ll post updates throughout the day and evening on @Alberniweather Twitter. They are on the front-page here.

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