Rainfall warning issued for Metro Vancouver and Sunshine Coast

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 22, 2025 2:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

Environment Canada has issued a rainfall informing for parts of Metro Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast, saying up to 110 millimetres of rainfall could autumn successful the portion starting Saturday night.

The informing issued Saturday greeting covers the bluish and eastbound sections of Metro Vancouver, arsenic good arsenic the Sunshine Coast and the Fraser Valley, including Abbotsford.

Rainfall is expected to statesman overnight connected Saturday and proceed until Monday day earlier tapering off, according to the forecaster.

Environment Canada says important rainfall amounts volition beryllium seen astatine higher elevations, adjacent the North Shore mountains and the Coquitlam region, portion overmuch of Metro Vancouver could spot betwixt 60 and 90 mm of rain.

"The dense rainfall volition proceed Sunday and done Sunday night," said Colin Fong, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

"And astatine the aforesaid time, this strategy volition bring successful capable lukewarm air, particularly connected Sunday, that immoderate snowfall falling implicit the skis slopes, specified arsenic the North Shore mountains, volition commencement to modulation towards rain."

Fong says the upwind strategy bringing the rainfall is an atmospheric river, referring to a large, constrictive watercourse of h2o vapour that travels done the sky.

"We are calling it an atmospheric river, but it looks to beryllium connected the weaker broadside wherever it volition stall connected the South Coast, but lone for astir a 24-hour period," helium said.

WATCH | What is an atmospheric river? 

The meteorologist says stronger atmospheric stream systems can instrumentality astir for up to 36 hours. He adds that the metallic lining from the dense rainfall is that the strategy volition bring warmer temperatures to the South Coast starting Monday afternoon.

"We'll acquisition immoderate adust and precise lukewarm temperatures for Tuesday and Wednesday," helium said.

"So successful our forecast for the Metro Vancouver region, we tin perchance expect temperatures reaching astir arsenic precocious arsenic 15 C."

Avalanche hazard goes up

Avalanche Canada has issued a peculiar nationalist avalanche informing for the Yoho and Kootenay nationalist parks connected the B.C.-Alberta borderline arsenic the upwind strategy moves successful this weekend.

Forecaster Lynnea Baker says the informing is owed to persistently anemic layers of the snowpack, and radical successful the backcountry should beryllium prepared for unpredictable conditions.

For the South Coast, the avalanche hazard was rated arsenic "considerable" connected Saturday morning, but Baker says the hazard could spike starting Sunday owed to the precipitation and elevated temperatures.

"The different happening that we are informing radical astir is the accidental of prima coming out," she told CBC News. "Even little periods of prima tin rapidly summation avalanche danger, and we tin spot earthy avalanche cycles occur.

"So keeping an oculus connected what's going connected with unreality cover, if you're starting to spot the prima travel out, past making definite you're backing disconnected those sun-exposed slopes is going to beryllium important."