METRO VANCOUVER — People across the province were still cleaning up Saturday after a nasty Remembrance Day storm that knocked out power, delayed ferries and sent cars careening off the road.
A swift-moving cold front that swept down Georgia Strait Friday afternoon, starting at Campbell River at noon and reaching Metro Vancouver about two hours later, was to blame.
It caused winds up to 95 kilometres an hour at Vancouver International Airport, thunderstorms and lightning strikes — about a dozen on the North Shore mountains, at least one on Burnaby Mountain and several over the water in the Strait — water spouts up to 200 metres high off Nanaimo and Comox, small hailstorms and a dumping of rain.
“It was quite an active front,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Greg Pearce. “It swept down the the length of the island in three hours’ time. It was pretty well all over by 4:30.”
Winds also gusted up to 90 km/h near Nanaimo and 60 km/h at Comox. Winds reach that speed only a couple of times a year, Pearce said.
The severe weather delayed and even cancelled B.C. Ferries sailings and delays were being predicted Friday evening between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Delta fire department responded Friday afternoon to a tree that fell through a house on Malibu Place, and Surrey city crews were called to remove two large trees blocking the road on 144th Street between Crescent Road and 34th Avenue.
B.C. Hydro reported 29 outages in Metro Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast, affecting more than 25,000 customers, and 48 outages on the north of Vancouver Island, leaving almost 29,000 without power.
The number of customers affected on Friday almost matches the total number hit by routine outages over the past two weeks, and the number of outages on the Island far surpasses the 4,000 affected over the past two weeks.
The Coquihalla Summit got 20 centimetres of heavy, wet snow in a short period of time, causing a number of number of vehicles to spin out in ditches on Friday, said the RCMP, which was warning motorists to avoid moutain highways.
There were early reports of a number of car crashes reported during the fresh snow: Single vehicle rollovers in Sparwood, Rossland and Castlegar, as well as another accident near Salmo, involving two semi-trailers, including one that went over an embankment on Highway 3, according to early first-responder reports.
CHBC reported semis jack-knifed in the ditch.
Pearce said the worst of the snow has passed, although it continued to snow Friday evening and and there was more forecast for Friday evening and Saturday. Driving was still treacherous late Friday on mountain highways.
Showers are forecast for Metro Vancouver on Saturday, with a high of plus six degrees Celsius, below a normal high of nine.
That precipitation will likely bring snow to the North Shore mountains and to Whistler.
Whistler and Sun Peaks in Kamloops were expected to open ahead of schedule for early skiing this weekend.
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