STORM CENTRE: More snow and freezing rain is on the way

MISSION (NEWS 1130) – A Winter Storm Warning has been issued by Environment Canada for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

The agency says light snow has already developed over northwest Washington State and it’s spreading northeast. Snow will develop over much of the South Coast and intensify with the heaviest amounts of snow expected overnight. As the warm air establishes there will also be a good chance of freezing rain followed by a significant rainfall overnight and into Thursday morning.

The transition from snow to rain is expected earliest along the immediate coast. Further inland, snow will persist for much longer and the risk of freezing rain will go up. As a result, snowfall amounts will vary across the region, from five to 15 centimetres near the coast to 20 centimetres or more inland.

As always, highways, roads, sidewalks and parking lots may become icy and slippery and localized flooding in low-lying areas may be possible.

POST-SECONDARY SCHOOL CLOSURES:

*All Douglas College campuses will be CLOSED as of 2:30 pm today.
*All Vancouver Community College campuses will close at 6 p.m. today (February 8) due to weather conditions. Evening classes are cancelled.
*BCIT is as of 2:30pm today due to a severe winter storm expected to hit this afternoon.
*Kwantlen classes are cancelled as of 4 p.m. Campuses will be closed at 6pm. Students are urged to check KPU email for updates.
*SFU classes at the Burnaby campus, starting at 1:30 p.m. onwards have been cancelled as well.
*Adult classes at Richmond Secondary have been cancelled as well, this includes courses held on the Sea Island Way campus.

 

BC Hydro is tracking the system and has dozens of crews on stand-by for when the snow and rain hits. “We use a team of meteorologists to provide us with as much advance notice as possible of storms that may impact our system,” explains the utility’s Mora Scott. “This helps us to have BC Hydro crews, our contractor crews, damage assessors, wire guards, call centre agents and many others on hand, ready to restore service if the lights go out. Our goal is to ensure that we have the right people and the right equipment in the right places.”

The utility has already been busy dealing with the impact of the series of snowstorms that have hit the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley over the past few days, but Scott adds all hands will be on deck and ready for this afternoon’s expected heavy snow and freezing rain. “It’s difficult to predict how much damage a storm is going to cause and how long an outage will last but we always encourage our customers to be prepared.” That includes having a properly stocked emergency kit on hand along with food and water and a charged cell phone.

Scott points out BC Hydro spends a lot of time between storms trying to minimize the effect of heavy, wet snow on trees and branches near transmission lines. “In BC more than half of all of our outages are actually caused by trees. We have three times more trees per kilometre of line than any other utility in North America,” she tells NEWS 1130. “That’s why we have a vegetation management team that regularly inspects these trees and other tall vegetation growing under or adjacent to our lines to identify any potential problems.”

Hydro spends $50 million annually on vegetation management so that when extreme weather does bring down branches, it doesn’t do as much damage to the power grid.

If you do come across a downed power line, Scott warns you stay at least 10 metres back and to call 911. “A downed line is considered an emergency situation and BC Hydro crews will work together with first responders to make the scene safe.”

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLOSURES:

Updates to come as soon as they become available.

DRIVE BC:

There are no other problems being reported at this time, however, you have to have winter tires to drive the out of town highways including the Sea to Sky and Coquihalla.

TRANSIT:
You are being told to dress warm for the conditions and to expect delays at bus and SkyTrain stations – that includes the Evergreen, Expo, Millennium and Canada Lines.

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: (YVR)
Check your flight status before heading to the terminal here

Helijet and Harbour Air have stopped flying today.

There have been a number of cancellations and delays, mostly involving WestJet flights to and from Calgary and Edmonton in an out of both YVR and Abbotsford Airports.

POWER OUTAGES:
Check out the latest list of outages here

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