Wild Winds, Rain, Hail & Snow Batter B.C.

[VanIsle]

Winds gusting up to 90 km/h battered Metro Vancouver and parts of Vancouver Island Friday afternoon as a part of a cold front moving south along British Columbia’s coast.Read full story>

This was quite something else yesterday. Our dining window faces the ocean. I looked out and the sun was shining so lovely but kind of eerie at the same time. As I looked further, toward Qualicum Beach and Parksville area, the sky had this ominous black look to it. The way they show it in the movies when a tornado is about to hit. There had been no warning that even much of a storm was brewing. Weather report simply said that it might rain for awhile about 1:00 PM and then the skies would clear again. The clouds just came in so quickly over the water and next it was hailing so hard and blowing just as hard. Our view to the water has been obscured by the leaves on the trees for the most part but within what felt like only seconds, most of the trees were bare. No tornado and nothing quite so dramatic but it certainly felt kind of creepy for a few minutes. I guess we didn't get hit as bad as some other places. Power was out up my son's way for at least overnight. Him and the kids came here to our house.
There are quite a number of you on here from my area - how was it at your house?

 

[bill barilko]

I was nailed by the storm while cycling through midtown Vancouver-Broadway & Cambie to be exact.

Heavy rain doesn't bother me too much but when it turns solid-like some of it did yesterday-I look for a convenient awning.

Streets were flooded here in Kitsilano-drains blocked by leaves everywhere-so there was no rest once I finally got home-civic duty called.

 

[VanIsle]

You and many others got nailed. We watched bikers, runners, you name it, - "walkers" who became "runners" as the hail really pelted them. Pretty freaky eh?

 

[Nuggler]

It was terrible.

I had just picked up a jacket from the back of a chair in a restaurant, walked a block, and the wind tore it from my hands. Away it went. All my needles, meth, smack............gone!!

Now it's time to look for more clothes and a drunk or two to roll.

Hard times.

 

[taxslave]

Power was out for 6-14 hrs north of QB depending on what line you are on. Lots of trees on the road. OTH our new wind mill worked just fine. We have the fan on the fireplace on battery and enough power for TV , all the chargers and a few lights. A little hectic for the fire depts. for a few hours.

 

[petros]

90km/h winds, big black clouds, pounding rain and hail? Sounds crazy. I'm glad I don't see 20 of those a summer.

 

[Mowich]

I was watching TV yesterday when all of a sudden the room went dark. I looked outside to see a black cloud swiftly moving in and darkening the skies everywhere. The wind that brought the clouds in tossed our big firs back and forth hollowing like a wounded cat - then the snow started falling and didn't stop until late last night. This morning the view out my living room window resembles a Christmas card.

 

[darkbeaver]

if these people would only get their carbon footprints in green order

snow and christmas now you've done it, there is no connection that a warm beach can't eradicate

 

[VanIsle]

90km/h winds, big black clouds, pounding rain and hail? Sounds crazy. I'm glad I don't see 20 of those a summer.

As you know, Iggy, in this area, we get our fair share of rain but seldom see hail and for that matter, seldom see snow even though "they" say that we are supposed to get lots of it this year. I have lived where I've been through all that with the big thunder and lightning storms and the hail. I've never been in what I would call a real thunder storm here. I don't recall anymore than one single night of hearing thunder in this area and even that was while we were out camping. Every once in awhile I like a good old thunder and lighting storm. They used to happen a lot where I grew up and always knocked out the power. It was such a family time as we would all sit around in one room with candles lit and chowing down on something. My Mom didn't get an electric stove until I was 14 so when there was a power outage, the old wood stove came in handy.
The thing about the storm we had was that it was so un-expected. The sun was shining and it was mild out. Then it was a weird looking sun, then black black clouds rolled in, in just moments. Then all the rest happened even faster. Not knowing how long it would last I said to my husband to take the dog out quick and before he got back into the house the hail had begun. There was so much wind that while we don't have snow drifts, we have leaf drifts!!! They seem to have swirled around into little piles almost like they were raked. It rains here and it rains hard and it gets windy. We are on the ocean for nearly all of this city or near enough that it's expected that we'll get those things. We just don't usually get them like we did. It hit Vancouver harder than us and they even got snow. We haven't seen any YET this year.
Nice the leaves are down. Now when the gardeners come back this week they can take them all instead of just a few at a time.

 

[petros]

For the past few years the Pacific surface temps have dropped. It gave you an ugly winter last year and will again this year. Remember winter of 95? It was la Nina that caused that the same way it is causing your crappy weather today.

 

[VanIsle]

For the past few years the Pacific surface temps have dropped. It gave you an ugly winter last year and will again this year. Remember winter of 95? It was la Nina that caused that the same way it is causing your crappy weather today.

No - not really (winter). Last winter we had two days of snow here in the city. My son had more up the highway a tad (Lantzville). The year before that we didn't have any. It was like the "winter that wasn't" but this summer was like the "summer that wasn't". We didn't see anything that resembled summer until August and even then, it wasn't hot. We ran a couple of fans in the house to keep things comfortable but there was not a day that we felt "too hot". We sat and watched as everyone across Canada was in the high heat range and a whole lot of BC was not. Mowich has had snow. Probably Cliff has and I know you have. Apparently we are really going to get dumped on this year. Haven't seen a really big dump of snow here since 1996. That was more than I had ever seen here before and we didn't live here at the time. I've bought warm winter jackets for 2 of 3 kids and need to try to get out today to get a nice warm one for the 3rd one before he's gone for a week and ends up going to school in a light weight jacket.

 

[Omicron]

According to the climate-change forecasts, BC's rainfall is going to go up 8%

It's already like living in an ice-age rainforest. As Tommy Douglas used to say, "people move to the west coast because of the climate, and move back because of the weather". In the middle 80's, 17,000 people per year were moving to BC, and 14,000 per year were moving back. It was not what they expected. In the rest of Canada you can put on a down parka and go play in the snow, whereas in BC you huddle around a damp fireplace while mold eats your home.

In the mean time, climate change projections show that the Columbia Ice-field feeding the Bow river, giving Calgary it's water, is going to melt-out, leaving that great city without water.

I don't get it. Canadians have all the latest technology. It would be such an easy piece of job-creating work to build rain-catchers over Vancouver catching the surplus rain and funneling it into a pipeline to Calgary.

LA lives off water-pipelines. We can build oil pipelines from the tar-sands to the west coast.

But nobody will think to get ready for climate change and build rain-catchers and pipelines to ease the west coast and send water to Calgary.

I just don't get it. Ancestors with limited resources had the guts and ability to built the first railroad to the west coast, and now with what would be one tenth the relative effort, we can't find organizers and a budget able to do more than gel their hair in order to look good with pearly teeth on the cover of GQ.

 

[talloola]

here in courtenay a beautiful mild sunny day all of a sudden turned windy and dark and everything was
blowing all over the place, BUT not nearly as vicious as the parksville area, they must have been
right in the eye of the storm.

in an hour or so it was gone, sun shone again and it was quite pleasant.

 

[damngrumpy]

The wind was really something here today I was supposed to weed spray but that didn't happen.
I hope it calms down next week. We are heading for Regina and the Agribition for a week and
we are driving a truck load of apples over the Rogers Pass, I want a nice sunny day for the trip.
In kelowna there is some snow at higher elevations it is about two weeks early and I am not crazy
about it

 

[Omicron]

here in courtenay a beautiful mild sunny day all of a sudden turned windy and dark and everything was
blowing all over the place, BUT not nearly as vicious as the parksville area, they must have been
right in the eye of the storm.

in an hour or so it was gone, sun shone again and it was quite pleasant.

I have associates in Alabama, and when they got those freak tornadoes some months ago, it tore out 500 year old trees, which are still being cleared.

The fact that those trees were 500 years old demonstrates how rare that scale was even for people knowing they are living in a tornado zone.

 

[talloola]

I have associates in Alabama, and when they got those freak tornadoes some months ago, it tore out 500 year old trees, which are still being cleared.

The fact that those trees were 500 years old demonstrates how rare that scale was even for people knowing they are living in a tornado zone.

that was terrifying, and very sad to lose those old trees. that must have been so so strong, can't
even imagine it.

 

[Omicron]

that was terrifying, and very sad to lose those old trees. that must have been so so strong, can't
even imagine it.

The woman I know says she was in her car, and everything went white... sort of like how we'd describe a snow-storm white-out.

People around her died, whole neighborhoods were destroyed, and she's more Evangelical than ever that she survived.

 

[talloola]

The woman I know says she was in her car, and everything went white... sort of like how we'd describe a snow-storm white-out.

People around her died, whole neighborhoods were destroyed, and she's more Evangelical than ever that she survived.

oh, thats too bad.

 

[Omicron]

Plus they live in a part of Alabama which does not normally get tornadoes, because they are up in the hills.

 

[talloola]

Plus they live in a part of Alabama which does not normally get tornadoes, because they are up in the hills.

I wonder what the explanation is for that 'freak' tornado, guess its no different than the ones that
hit alberta once in a blue moon.