Parts of Vancouver Island were blanketed in fog Tuesday morning, and Environment Canada says the same is expected for Wednesday.
Early Tuesday morning, Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a fog advisory for Greater Victoria and East Vancouver Island for Courtenay to Campbell River, Duncan to Nanaimo, and Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay.
The advisory called for near-zero visibility in those areas.
“Visibility may be significantly and suddenly reduced to near zero. If travelling, be prepared for areas of near-zero visibility. If visibility is reduced while driving, turn on your lights and maintain a safe following distance,” the weather agency said in a statement posted on its website.
A foggy morning in #yyj pic.twitter.com/vfFqATrqcS
— Nicholas M. Pescod (@npescod) November 15, 2022
Bobby Sekhon, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says it is looking like Wednesday will be similar.
“We remain under this ridge of high pressure that’s causing these stable conditions to give fog in over eastern Vancouver Island and Victoria area,” Sekhon said. “Basically, what’s happening is moisture is getting trapped under an inversion and that’s giving some thick fog this morning and probably reforming, at least to a certain extent, tomorrow.”
Sekhon says it’s hard yet to determine if the fog will be as thick as Tuesday morning, but if it is the weather agency will issue another fog advisory.
On Thursday, Sekhon says there is expected to be wind but at this point, the winds are not expected to be at a level requiring a wind warning.
“That will keep things a little bit more mixed in so probably not as much fog for Thursday with a little bit of windy conditions,” Sekhon said. “I don’t think it’ll be quite at wind warning criteria, but certainly it’ll be gusty. We’re still working on what those wind speeds might look like exactly, but certainly seeing something in the range of 30 to 50 kilometres an hour is not out of the question.”
Precipitation deficit
In October, the Island saw less rain than usual years, and Sekhon says November is currently also sitting at below seasonal averages.
“We did have an active start to November here, however, things are looking dry this week,” Sekhon said. “Fact the matter is for the season, we are still running a precipitation deficit. So still dry for the fall, and the next couple of weeks if we can get some return of precipitation coming then it’ll help with those November precipitation numbers.”
Sekhon says while the rest of the week is expected to be dry and sunny, it is important to be mindful of the weather because things can change quickly.
“Things like the fog advisory can make things like driving difficult or the possibility of black ice in some places where you might get below freezing that kind of thing,” Sekhon said. “Even the winds coming on Thursday will make you feel colder as well. So there’s still weather happening even though it does seem like it’s nice and sunny.”
Fog over downtown Victoria on Nov. 15, 2022 (Nicholas Pescod/CHEK News)
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