Strong winds, upwards of 90 kilometres per hour, are expected as part of a storm moving through the region Tuesday. The system is already churning up strong waves off northern Vancouver Island. (submitted/Harvey Humchitt Jr.)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

WICKED WIND

Powerful wind storm moving across central Vancouver Island

Jan 5, 2021 | 10:37 AM

NANAIMO — Batten down the hatches, the year’s first major windstorm is here.

Environment Canada issued a wind warning on Monday, Jan. 4 with a major Pacific system forecast to move through central Vancouver Island on Tuesday afternoon.

Doug Lundquist, meteorologist, told NanaimoNewsNOW potentially damaging winds are expected through the region.

“Particularly out over (Strait of Georgia), we’re expecting gusts near 90 kilometres per hour…maybe further inland more like 60 to 70 kilometres per hour in the gusts. The system moves far enough north that the winds will die down this evening.”

Environment Canada warned the winds have the power to toss loose objects or cause tree branches to snap.

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BC Hydro crews were called to action early Tuesday afternoon with a widespread outage affecting 2,100 Nanoose, Lantzville and north Nanaimo customers.

Between 15 and 30 millimetetres of rain is expected to fall in the Nanaimo and Oceanside regions on Tuesday afternoon as a result of the storm. A further 10 millimetres is anticipated overnight.

BC Ferries proactively cancelled most sailings between the mainland and Vancouver Island on Tuesday. Three afternoon sailings between Duke Point and Tsawwassen were cancelled, along with four sailings from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay.

Winds are expected to ease as the storm moves inland Tuesday evening.

Lundquist said the current setup of conditions across North America is directing more storm activity from the southwest towards Vancouver Island, bringing warmer temperatures along with it.

“We have had a north west storm, that’s what gave us the skiff of snow in December, but in general the south west has dominated…systems more coming from Hawaii or straight west instead of the Gulf of Alaska.”

Forecasters are anticipating a weekend storm to be the region’s last for a while, giving way to clearer skies.

Lundquist said an ‘extraordinary’ ridge of high pressure is expected to dominate conditions for the foreseeable future with the return of sunshine and warmer temperatures.

“If it were summer it’d be 35 degree weather, of course we can’t get there in January. It’s so strong, it’s making us meteorologists scratch our heads about what’s going on.”

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