After rainy, stormy Wednesday, B.C. told to expect more wet weather soon
Environment Canada meteorologist says Friday night should bring another storm
Heavy rains and high winds rolled across the southern half of B.C. Wednesday, disrupting flights, power and afternoon commutes as many streets and highways flooded.
The storm prompted Environment Canada to issue numerous weather warnings.
As of 9:30 p.m. PT, most of those warnings ended.
Environment Canada also issued a snowfall warning for the Whistler area, along with the Columbia and Shuswap regions. The Columbia and Shuswap warnings remain in effect as Wednesday draws to a close.
The B.C. River Forecast Centre issued streamflow advisories for much of the province due to the weather.
The District of North Vancouver Fire Department said it had to perform a swift water rescue on the Capilano River Wednesday evening after four people out fishing got trapped by rushing water around 6:30 p.m. PT.
Duty Chief Walt Warner said firefighters hoisted the four up to the Highway 1 bridge deck over the river. All were in good condition.
"They're giving us the thumbs up," he said. "They're not hypothermic or cold in any way. They had their proper fishing gear on, just were unable to get off the rocks."
<a href="https://twitter.com/DNorthVanFire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DNorthVanFire</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DNVFRS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DNVFRS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DNVFFCS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DNVFFCS</a> Firefighters had a rough time rescuing 4 people stranded in the Capilano River. <a href="https://t.co/ftoYdQdaMq">pic.twitter.com/ftoYdQdaMq</a>
—@NVanEmergencyNumerous disruptions
The Resort Municipality of Whistler announced a brief closure of the Sea-to-Sky Highway Wednesday afternoon because of the storm.
The City of Vancouver's 311 service reported high call volume and the District of North Vancouver reported flooding so severe it caused the closure of at least one field.
William Griffin field is now closed for all practices and games today. I think the video says it all. We will continue to monitor it. 🌧🌧 <a href="https://t.co/stXkoD6okh">pic.twitter.com/stXkoD6okh</a>
—@DNVFieldsOn Tuesday as many as 120,000 people were without power after a storm swept through the province, felling trees and damaging electrical infrastructure.
At approximately 6:30 p.m. PT Wednesday, BC Hydro reported about 10,000 customers were without power, although it is unclear how many of those outages were due to the weather.
Harbour Air cancelled several flights over the course of the day, including flights to Victoria, Nanaimo and Comox.
BC Ferries reported cancellations on about about half a dozen routes from the Gulf Islands to the Central Coast. And there were delays on some routes, some of which were caused by terminal power outages.
DriveBC reported pooling water on many routes across the southern half of B.C.
Another storm coming
Cindy Yu, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says Thursday and much of Friday will lead to "in-between weather" of lingering showers, but Friday night should bring yet another storm.
"We are looking at another 30 to 40 millimetres of rain for the Lower Mainland," Yu said.
She says temperatures are high enough to avoid major snowfalls over the Sea-to-Sky or Coquihalla highways but some wet snow might be seen.
She says B.C.'s winter is hard to predict this year, with a "50-50" chance of going into another La Nina winter, which is wetter than usual.
With files from Meera Bains