Snow fall in Vancouver in March!!!
photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/rldock/2088203526/
March seems to be going out as a lion rather than a lamb this year, with snow in some parts of the province on Thursday and more again Friday.
“I’ve had reports of snow from all over: Victoria, Vancouver, the Fraser Valley,” said Environment Canada forecaster John McIntyre on Thursday.
A “very unstable air mass” combined with a cold upper low-pressure area sitting over B.C. — because the jet stream is farther south than normal — is causing the flurries in Surrey and elsewhere.
The air temperature was in the low single digits both days, well below the normal highs for this time of year of 11 degrees.
There were reports of traffic trouble on Vancouver Island with snow accumulating along the Malahat Highway Friday morning.
Snow was also falling across Metro Vancouver, although it was not sticking except in a few higher elevations.
Despite being somewhat rare, snow in March at sea level isn’t reason to call Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
“It has done this before,” said McIntyre.
Records show three centimetres of snow at sea level on March 1, 2007, and six centimetres on March 10, 2006, but none in 2004 or 2005.
The decided lack of global warming in B.C. this week also pelted downtown Vancouver with a hailstorm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, Wednesday that accumulated and stuck around.
“I can still see some on our roof today,” said McIntyre Thursday.
The cold weather is expected to last through the last day of the month — Monday — with above-normal temperatures forecast for Tuesday, April Fool’s Day.
A freak hailstorm hit Vancouver this afternoon, affecting bus service over the Burrard and Granville bridges and on Burrard and Granville Streets around Pacific and Drake.
Icy conditions are expected to worsen overnight, as Environment Canada predicts the temperate to level off at -1 C.
Drew Snider of Translink reports that the City of Vancouver has been called for salting bus routes, and that transit supervisors are attempting to get salt from depots in the meantime.
