Rare April Snowfall Heading For Parts Of BC & It Could Break A 14-Year Record In Vancouver
Talk about flip-flopping weather!
Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island is potentially getting some rare April snow and, no, this isn't a belated April Fools Day joke.
Weather forecasts suggest a cold front is coming in this weekend and into next week, bringing some unfortunate possibilities with it.
"If there is some precipitation, we could see some snow in the mountains or even the higher elevation neighbourhoods in Metro Vancouver," said Bobby Sekhon, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
He told Narcity that the overnight temperatures are going to be "quite low, in the low single digits close to the freezing mark for the next several days through the weekend in the early part of next week."
These temperatures are going to be cold enough for the possibility of some snow to fall in the higher elevations of Metro Vancouver.
Luckily for your weekend plans, Sekhon said that there is not a lot of precipitation expected this weekend — meaning it might be snow-free.
The city isn't totally safe from the possibility of snow though. Sekhon added that there might be precipitation next week, possibly on Tuesday night, which could cause "a little bit of wet flurries to the higher elevations in Metro Vancouver."
Given that it's still a few days away, Sekhon said that it's difficult to tell how likely the snow is — or how close to sea level it will reach.
"We probably won't see a lot of accumulating snow," he added.
How rare is it?
As to how rare it would be if the snow did happen, Sekhon said that the last time there was "measurable snowfall" at the Vancouver International Airport in April — which is at least 0.2 cm — was April 19, 2008.
He also said that the latest date that measurable snowfall has been recorded at the airport was April 19.
Even if Vancouver doesn't see snow on the ground, the cooler weather trend probably won't be the spring you were hoping for.
Vancouver Island expected to be the hardest hit
The cold snap isn't just affecting the Lower Mainland either. Vancouver Island is also in for a surprise snowfall this weekend.
The average daily high temperature in Victoria — on Vancouver Island — during the month of April range from 11C to 14 C, and "rarely" falls below 9C, according to Weather Spark.