#bcstorm — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bcstorm, aggregated by home.social.
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British Columbia (General): 🏔️ BC is a province of contrasts today! While the coast remains damp and mild, the interior is seeing that classic winter sparkle. Travel over the mountain passes? Be sure to check DriveBC—conditions can change faster than a mountain breeze. Stay safe out there! #BCStorm #BCWx https://youtu.be/pG7l1lLfyeg
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British Columbia (Provincial)
BC is seeing a real split today! While the coast deals with its signature "wet-cold," the interior is bracing for significant snowfall. A heavy snow storm is tracking across many regions, bringing high totals to the mountain passes. If you're traveling the Coquihalla or the Kootenays, please check Drive BC. High of 1°C, low of -1°C. Stay safe and keep those headlights on! ❄️🏔️ #BCStorm #BCWeather #ShiftIntoWinter https://youtu.be/HcrM0MLwoeE -
A true pineapple express for the Pacific Northwest beginning Sunday
The next Pacific Northwest atmospheric river is forecast to impact the region from Sunday through Tuesday, coming in at a category 3 on the atmospheric river scale. This will be a true pineapple express event with the moisture plume originating from Hawaii.
The moisture content isn’t particularly impressive but with this event is forecast to last just short of three days. Snow levels will rise significantly and this combined with moderate rainfall will lead to widespread snowmelt in the Cascades and a possible flood risk, though the flooding won’t reach the level we saw earlier in the season.
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The pineapple express will be driven by a mixture of low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska, high pressure off the California coast, and cold fronts stuck in the middle. Low pressure systems drag cold fronts behind them but the strength of the high pressure to our south will keep them from progressing onward.
The halted progression is what channels the atmospheric river over the Pacific Northwest for several days at a time. Right now modeling suggests the moisture plume will be aimed near Seattle with consistent rain extending to the north of Vancouver and as far south as Salem.
Moisture will be coming into the Pacific Northwest from due west and the Cascades will stop most of it from reaching into the Columbia Basin. High clouds can be expected for places like the Tri-Cities and Yakima. Temperatures will warm up but precipitation will be minimal.
The B.C. Interior and Coast Range lie to the north of the pineapple express so temperatures won’t be as warm there. That said, with the active storm track in the Gulf of Alaska there will be plenty of precipitation in that region.
Precipitation will likely fall primarily as rain in interior communities like Kamloops and Prince George but the mountains will probably still see a good amount of snowfall. The last couple of weeks have helped to clear the snow deficit in most of British Columbia.
The same can also be said of Northern Washington (including the Okanogan) but this three days of rain is going to wash all of that away. Snowpack remains below average in Washington south of Stevens Pass and critically below average in Oregon.
As noted, the flood threat is not as severe as December 2025 but some moderate flooding can be expected north of White Pass along rivers draining the Cascades, B.C. Coast Range, and Vancouver Island mountains. As of publish time, no flood alerts had been posted in Washington, Oregon, or British Columbia but I expect these will come out over the next day or two.
Beyond Tuesday the California high expands northward, sending the storm track more toward Prince Rupert and Ketchikan and keeping the bulk of the Pacific Northwest dry. More mid-elevation snowmelt can be expected during the second half of next week as temperatures remain warm.
Temperature inversions are common under strong high pressure this time of year and next week will be no different. Despite sunny and relatively warm weather in the mountains, the Columbia Basin will likely see a long-duration inversion develop with low clouds, fog, and steady temperatures in the 30s (around 2ºC).
It remains to be seen just how deep this inversion will get. Some models are hinting at it continuing into the week of the 19th and if that’s the case we’ll probably see it extend to Spokane and Kelowna.
Some inversion activity may also be noted in the Lower Mainland, Puget Sound Region, and Portland metro but this is usually slower to form because of the proximity to the ocean (rather than being completely surrounded by mountains like the Columbia Basin is).
I feel confident in saying that Medford and Eugene will be socked in with inversion clouds during this period. There is less confidence for the larger metro areas west of the Cascades.
The featured image is ECMWF modeled total precipitable water for midday Monday. (WeatherBell)
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VIU closing campus midday! Students and staff trying to get out befoee it gets worse! 😂 Always a challenge when the campus is built into a hill!
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A few important ways that you can prepare for the #bombcyclone tonight:
✅ Secure outdoor items
✅ Charge devices
✅ Stock up on essentials (water and non-perishable food)
✅ Have a 72-hour emergency kit ready (see link) -
🚨 Bomb Cyclone Alert for BC! 🚨
A powerful storm is set to hit the Lower Mainland starting this afternoon 🌪️
💨 Wind gusts: 70-90 km/h
⚡ Possible power outages
🛑 Travel disruptionshttps://www.langleyunion.ca/bomb-cyclone-everything-you-need-to-know/
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A 992 mb low pressure system is forecast to make landfall in Southeast Alaska on Friday. To the south of the low’s center, it is dragging a cold front that will sweep eastward across the Pacific Northwest to bring rain showers and high elevation snow through the weekend.
Rain from this system began falling in Juneau and Prince Rupert on Thursday. It is forecast to spread into Interior British Columbia over the course of the day Friday and reach Victoria and Vancouver in the evening.
Seattle is looking at some showers Friday night. South of about Olympia, little rain is forecast out of the frontal passage itself. This is in contrast to Wednesday’s storm which had the low pressure center closer to Washington and the heaviest rain in Western Oregon.
There will not be enough moisture embedded within the cold front to generate rain in the Columbia Basin. A modest increase in wind speed is likely Saturday afternoon downwind of major Cascade mountain gaps like the Columbia Gorge and Snoqulamie Pass. The strongest wind gusts may peak around 30 mph (50 km/h) for Ellensburg and the I-84 corridor from The Dalles to Hermiston.
Upper level temperatures drop behind the cold front so that snow levels lower to about 1700 m (5500 ft) elevation for the B.C. Coast Ranges, 2000 m (6500 ft) in the B.C. Interior, and 2400 m (8000 ft) in Washington. Significant high elevation snowfall is not forecast, but a few centimeters may dust slopes above these thresholds.
Convective rain showers are likely in the post-frontal environment in British Columbia and parts of Washington and Oregon west of the Cascades on Saturday. Possible mountain showers linger into Sunday. A rumble of thunder would not surprise me but conditions are not favorable for widespread thunderstorm activity.
Through Sunday, the Lower Mainland is likely to receive somewhere between 10 and 20 mm (0.40 to 0.80 in) of rain. The Puget Sound Region should range from 0.20 to 0.60 inches (5 to 15 mm), and Portland will be lucky if they get 0.20 inches (5 mm).
The highest values will be in the B.C. Coast Ranges where isolated totals in excess of 70 mm (2.75 in) appear possible from around Bella Coola to around Powell River. In the interior, locations between Quensel and Lillooet may walk away with similar totals to the Lower Mainland.
Post-frontal convection is driven by the cooler air aloft and the warming influence of the Pacific Ocean. Heat rises and colder temperatures above allow more air to rise faster, taking moisture with it.
Sea surface temperatures are not impacted significantly by individual cold fronts so even though upper level temperatures cool down the air temperature near the ground remains warm close to the ocean. This is what creates the sometimes heavy rain showers after a cold front in the cooler season.
After this storm, the next regional system is forecast to bring an atmospheric river to Southeast Alaska and the North Coast of B.C. through Monday before sweeping rain into the Lower Mainland and I-5 Corridor on Tuesday.
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Severe Thunderstorm warning just issued for South VI
“Severe thunderstorm warning continued for:
East Vancouver Island - Duncan to Nanaimo, B.C. (081310)Current details:
At 3:23 p.m. PDT, Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a severe thunderstorm capable of producing strong wind gusts, pea to dime size hail and heavy rain.This severe thunderstorm is located 18 km south of Duncan, near Shawnigan Lake, and is moving northwest at 20 km/h.”
#duncan #nanaimo #ladysmith #bcstorm -
I was happy to see mother nature adding some traffic calming to our neighborhood. But then I noticed the tree landed on a car-sharing vehicle. 😭 If only there had been an oversized truck parked there. #bcStorm #modo #carSharing
