How about that Squamish winter weather this week!
Ten centimetres of snow fell today, Saturday, Jan. 8, according to Squamish meteorologist Jason Ross.
In the Squamish area, there is officially 50 cm on the ground at the Squamish Airport. However, there's about 75 cm on the ground in the Garibaldi Highlands, he said.
Historically, the most snow on the ground on this day ( from 1983 to 2019) was 38 cm in 2009.
Ross said that what we have seen move through Squamish this past week was a classic West Coast winter storm where the two air masses battle it out over the South Coast.
"In the beginning, Arctic air was dominating with cold temperatures and outflow winds, or winds that blow from north to south. On Wednesday, as the first frontal system moved in, precipitation fell as heavy snow across the region," he said.
Then slowly, the second warmer Pacific storm started to take over as it moved in from the west, bringing milder air.
The snow transitioned to freezing rain on Thursday afternoon.
"Freezing rain is created when mild air moves over cold air near the surface. Rain falls through the milder air, but then freezes when it hits the cold surfaces near the ground."
Freezing rain overnight led to dangerous conditions on Squamish roads Friday and caused power outages. Six to nine millimetres of freezing rain accumulated due to this storm.
There were thousands of BC Hydro customers in Squamish without electricity by Friday evening.
"It's not uncommon to have freezing rain events along coastal B.C. during the winter months. Usually, the warm-up is quick, and the freezing rain lasts for a few hours," Ross said.
"This event went on for about 12 hours. A lot of old-time Squamish residents have told me stories of a silver thaw event that happened in the 1970s that was days of freezing rain, causing lots of damage to trees and knocking out power for days."
Looking ahead to next week, Ross said he sees signs of warmer Pacific air with higher freezing levels. There will be rain, at times heavy, for coastal B.C. and heavy snowfall in the mountains.
