Weather warnings not over for Metro Vancouver and the Island after windy Christmas
It was a blustery Christmas Day for Vancouver Island after wind and rainfall warnings were posted by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) for much of the BC Coast, but it looks like Metro Vancouver was spared the worst of Old Man Winter’s wrath.
The weather organization had some damp and dreary predictions on Christmas Eve, warning that southeast winds up to 120 km/h gusting to 150 120 km/h would be possible along exposed coastal sections of North Vancouver Island and the Central Coast.
“A low-pressure centre off the coast of BC is giving strong winds to the region. Extreme southeast winds reaching 120 km/h with gusts to 150 will continue this morning over the Central Coast, then reduce to strong southwest winds late morning,” predicted ECCC on December 24. “Very strong southeast 90 km/h gusting to 120 over the exposed coastal sections of North Vancouver Island then gradually diminish this morning. The system will move out of the area late this morning. High winds may cause downed trees or toss loose objects. Utility outages may occur.”
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But just how many electric, turkey-stuffed stoves were tragically zapped of life at the most inopportune time imaginable?
The numbers from BC Hydro show that Vancouver Island was hit hardest on Christmas Day.
According to the outage list, Vancouver Island, South saw 12 outages over the span of December 25, resulting in a loss of power for just shy of 10,000 homes. Another six outages so far on December 26 added around 2,000 to that tally. However, thanks to the work of BC Hydro’s finest, only six outages are currently affecting 561 customers in the region at the time of writing.
It was a similar story for the region of Vancouver Island, North, with 26 outages impacting roughly 2,000 customers on Christmas, 652 of which are still without power as of Thursday morning.
As for the region of Metro Vancouver, Sunshine Coast? Call it a Christmas Miracle, as just shy of 2,000 customers in the much more densely populated region were without power — over half of that was due to one particularly nasty outage in Powell River — leaving a grand total of just 15 customers without power on Boxing Day morning.
Naturally, all the hubbub about extremely strong winds left a few Vancouverites scratching their heads in a Reddit thread aptly titled “Where’s the storm” posted on Christmas morning.
“Gentle breeze in Burnaby! At least the turkey is getting cooked without power outages!” wrote one Redditor.
The sentiment was echoed by a few others in the Lower Mainland: “The storm that never was, at least in the Vancouver area. Light rain, and practically no wind. A quick google say Vancouver got only 18.9mm of rain, when over 50+ was predicted for the 25th alone, with maybe 90kmph gusts. 4am boxing day now, with very light rain, and still no wind.”
“Vancouver South was storming. Not really that bad but wasn’t clear skies by any means lol,” noted a person on the thread.
It was a different story for the folks on the Island.
“Pretty wild here in mid Van island. Probably heading that way,” wrote one commenter.
“It’s cookin’ over in Nanoose Bay,” wrote another.
The winds were so bad around Vancouver International Airport that it registered its windiest Christmas Day in almost 70 years, according to the Victoria Weather Records X account.
🥈With a mean wind of 26km/h, yesterday was #Victoria International Airport’s windiest Christmas Day in almost 70 years, since 1955. #YyjWx #YYJ #BCWx pic.twitter.com/2BJASBpPly
— Victoria Weather Records🌤 (@YYJ_Weather) December 26, 2024
And the weather woes may not be over quite yet.
ECCC updated their weather warnings for the region this morning, with rainfall warnings for Metro Vancouver and Howe Sound and a special weather statement for Greater Victoria warning of elevated ocean levels due to the high winds.
“Large waves due to gale-force southwest winds, storm surge and seasonably high tides have the potential to produce high water levels this morning. Minor coastal flooding is possible along exposed shorelines, especially in low-lying areas.”
So, if you do plan on heading out for some deals this Boxing Day, don’t forget that umbrella!