Get ready for the downpour: Unseasonably wet weather on the way for parts of Metro Vancouver

Muggy and a high of 25 degrees.

METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you live on the North Shore, the Tri-Cities or Maple Ridge, you could be in for a soaking.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for those areas, as well as for parts of Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and Sea to Sky Country.

NEWS 1130 Meteorologist Russ Lacate says the strong system could pound some areas with up to 50 millimetres of rain during the day and evening.

“Areas nearer to the mountains are expected to take the brunt of it, with rainfall totals exceeding 25 millimetres along the North Shore, and considerably more than that for Sea to Sky Country,” says Russ.

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart says his community has seen storms like this before, but notes the heavy rainfall can cause problems, especially for the various construction sites around the city during the summer months.

“They have to prepare their sites for this because we don’t want any spill from a construction site to end up into our streets or essentially plugging storm drains,” says Stewart.

He says most municipalities are prepared for such storms and, like Coquitlam, have redundancies in place to manage heavier-than-normal rainfall.

“We have separate sewer and storm [systems], and so we don’t anticipate any problems, but we know darn well that the problems you end up with during a storm are you probably didn’t anticipate,” he says.

Ahead of the rain, he says the city is working on making sure it’s ready.

“Make sure the catch basins and major storm drains are clear,” says Stewart. “We have culverts that have to be maintained and protected.”

 

Russ says the incoming storm likely won’t arrive until well after midnight.

“And more so into the morning hours Friday,” he says. “It brings along a pulse of heavier showers — possible thundershowers too.”

Rainfall warnings are already up in some areas.

“With subtropical moisture infused into this offshore jet stream, the carrying capacity of the incoming storm is much more than we typically see along the west coast in summer,” Russ says. “Because of that, the showers and thundershowers could be locally heavy late overnight, into Friday morning, bringing close to a month’s worth of rain to areas closer to the mountains.

Follow meteorologists Russ Lacate and Michael Kuss for the latest. Listen live for weather updates every 10 minutes on the ones after traffic on NEWS 1130.

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