Today: Wind and Rain AND SNOW – then getting cold

UPDATE 2: 3:15PM – The snow has now changed to rain. Expect this to continue long enough to wash away the snow. Stay safe out there, it’s really ugly in places. There is also a wind warning for the East Coast and we should get wind her too.

UPDATE 1PM: In case you haven’t already noticed. IT”S SNOWING HARD.

Expect this to keep it up until we get some of those warm southerly winds in here to change it back to rain. When that will happen? Very hard to guess right now. The strong winds aren’t slated until later this afternoon. We could be knee deep by then (but I don’t think it will keep snowing that hard).

This is one of those classic Port Alberni “it stayed colder than we though, rained hard, dragged down the temperatures, and switched to snow” events.

Stay safe out there! And keep updated through Twitter @Alberniweather

We have a good bit of rain coming today and tonight.

There is a nice low pressure system slated to cross the Island just to the north of Port Alberni which means we should be in for some strong winds.

Environment Canada is predicting gusts up to 70kph, the UWashington model is a little less than that (around 50kph). Gusts on the West Coast should easily reach 90kph. (The red zones below are 50knots/90kph)
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Either way it will be blustery.

It will also be wet with EC and UWash both predicting 20-30mm by tonight.

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There will be the chance that some of this falls as wet snow at higher elevations but it should remain warm enough not to be too serious.

The cool down will come Wednesday afternoon and night where there is a chance for lingering showers to turn into lingering flurries, especially on the East Coast, before it all clears out for a cold Thursday and Friday.

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10 thoughts on “Today: Wind and Rain AND SNOW – then getting cold

  1. Surprised to see many places are changing over to snow. Could be an interesting afternoon for some. I think we should get a burst or warming south winds at some point, but some places are going to get some accumulation before this happens.

    1. Yes I think the expectation was that it would not be so cold, in spots, to start. This is the kind of classic thing we see in the Valley though. Cold air sticks around more than we thought, heavy rain cools the air even more and it switches to snow. Now the question is, will it switch back to rain anytime soon?!

  2. Looks like warm air is starting to move in, somewhere at the higher levels to begin with, should mix down if the winds pick up from south or west.

  3. Its interesting to watch the temp spikes in some places with the wind and not in others. I gained and dropped 3c in the matter of 15 minutes, Maquinna school jumped to almost 6c and is dropping again as well, but your place has been steady.

      1. Interesting…Alberni Elementary only made it to 2.6, and the airport stayed at 0 since noon yesterday. So much for warming up to 4 overnight!

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