It’s not quite a ‘pineapple express’, ‘tropical punch’ or ‘atmospheric river’, but Vancouver Island is getting hit this week with some sub-tropical moisture.
The frontal system started hitting much of Vancouver Island on Tuesday and it’s bringing lots of wind with it to parts of the Island.
Winds gusting up to 140 kilometres an hour — that’s hurricane strength — were recorded at Solander Island off northwestern Vancouver Island Monday afternoon.
It’s a fairly typical October storm system, but there’s another one right behind it and that means we’re looking at lots of rain.
“It is certainly a good series of storms,” explains Armel Castellan of Environment and Climate Change Canada. “It’s going to last until at least Saturday morning or afternoon and we might have a bit of break then and then we’re probably going to get slammed with yet another possibly stronger system on Sunday into Monday.”
Despite the wet weather this fall, Accuweather is predicting a mild and drier-than-normal winter for the B.C. South Coast.
The newly-released seasonal forecast says places like Victoria and Vancouver will also be sunnier than usual.
Much of B.C. will see less snowfall according to the Accuweather forecast and that could increase the potential for another bad drought next year.
Environment Canada says we’re in neutral phase right now — it’s neither El Niño or La Niña.
They’re calling it ‘El Nada’.
Tess van Straaten
