A strong low off Alaska whipped up major winds along Greater Victoria’s coastline Tuesday.
The system triggered a wind warning, advising of speeds up to 90 km/h along coastal areas.
Area’s like Oak Bay, closer to the Strait of Georgia saw massive waves and powerful gusts.
“The Greater Victoria area for this event is going to see that sustained strong wind with the gusts reaching those 90-100 km/h speeds,” said Armel Castellan, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“There is enough of a fetch from Puget Sound through the San Juan Islands and through Haro Strait, where the winds are, going to being some fairly big waves if you’re exposed there,” he said.
“It’s going to deliver a wind that is sustained very strong,” he added.
In areas closer to the Juan de Fuca strait like Sooke there were much lower winds.
But as the Strait of Georgia remained treacherous B.C. Ferries cancelled sailings on their major routes.
“We are expecting heavy winds coming through and they have started already,” said B.C. Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall.
“We do expect that wind storm to persist until early evening. So at this point, we will make a call later in the day regarding a last call on the major routes.”
The system is expected to ease by the evening.
“It’s ramping up currently right now and lasting into most of the day into all the way through into the early evening. At ten to midnight is when we will see those winds ease,” Castellan said.
Thousands of outages have also been reported in the region and across the Island.
For now, crews will be facing high winds to help people get out of the dark.
Julian Kolsut
