Snowfall ranging from a dusting to almost 20 centimetres blanketed the Island on Wednesday, and it’s not over yet — snow with a risk of freezing rain is expected to return this afternoon.
Victoria International Airport recorded 18 centimetres of snow as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, when the snowfall eased.
The snow cancelled classes in most school districts as well as post-secondary institutions, grounded Helijet and Harbour Air flights, and resulted in power outages that peaked at just over 20,000 customers before noon, most of them on the south Island.
“We knew what was coming — there was a strong consensus this would be a significant snow event concentrated in the Gulf Islands and south Island,” said B.C. Hydro community relations manager Ted Olynyk. “We put a lot of resources to it and luckily crews were able to get there.”
Bus service in the Cowichan Valley and Nanaimo was scaled back because of poor road conditions. B.C. Transit in Greater Victoria had some routes cancelled or detoured. The handyDart service was in operation for essential services only, such as medical appointments.
Canada Post mail delivery was cancelled throughout the Island, as was blue-box recycling pick-up in the Capital Regional District and Nanaimo, which also cancelled garbage pick-up.
It wasn’t a snow day for everyone, though, to the chagrin of some kids in the Greater Victoria and Sooke school districts, where classes went ahead.
At Rockheights Middle School in Esquimalt, Grade 6 student Blake echoed the sentiment of many of his schoolmates as he tried to dig out a snow fort: “I think it should have been a snow day, honestly, because the rest of the schools were closed.”
There were snow-related vehicle crashes throughout the region, including a pedestrian hit near Ring Road at the University of Victoria, said Oak Bay police.
The department did not provide details of the collision or injuries to the pedestrian.
A woman who made the trek in a four-wheel drive vehicle from Duncan to bring her 19-year-old son to his first lab at the university said she saw the young male victim in a crosswalk with first responders around him and a white car stopped in the middle of the road.
Road conditions varied greatly from Victoria to over the Malahat, said Andrew Gates of Emcon Services Inc., which maintains roads for the South Island.
“That catches a lot of people off guard with many of our snowstorms on southern Vancouver Island where you can leave Victoria and it can be even green grass and there’s no snow and it’s just raining and you get to the Malahat and you’re with this slushy wet winter paradise,” Gaetz said.
A chain-up protocol has been in place for the Malahat since 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, and commercial vehicles were being checked for snow tires and chains before travelling the highway, said Gaetz, adding a few were turned around Wednesday for not having chains.
“All in all it went fairly well — all our equipment stayed running, all of our staff came in and worked long hard hours, and all major routes stayed open.”
Gaetz said there were a couple of crashes or sliding collisions and some single-vehicle spinouts. Much of the time, such incidents are caused by people who aren’t experienced in driving in winter conditions, or are driving too fast for the road conditions, he said.
Some pedestrians surveyed on Wednesday afternoon once the flakes stopped falling wondered what all the fuss was about.
“This is nothing,” said Cindy Kent, who has lived in the region since 1984. “I used to live in Winnipeg. When I was a kid, I put on my skates and walked four houses away to an outdoor ice rink at my school.”
Her friend Kaza Brook, 36, agreed. She used to live in Watford, a farming community between Sarnia and London, Ontario. When people who come to Victoria to escape the snow complain after a storm, “I tell them that in two days, it will be all gone,” she said.
Some Island visitors were amused about all the excitement over an inch or two of snow.
“We’re visiting from Edmonton. When we left a few days ago it was -38 C,” said Vasily Tanygin, who is in his 30s. With the temperature hovering around 1 C and no wind coming off the water in the Inner Harbour on Wednesday, he found the weather warm.
“I really like Victoria so far — it’s green and nice,” said Tanygin. “In the winter, Edmonton just has shades of grey.”
Visitors from Frankfurt, Germany said they came to Victoria expecting rain, not snow. Sophia Doll, 20, and Romy Theinl, 19, are in Canada on an eight-month work/travel vacation and recently visited Calgary, where there was significantly more snow than Victoria had on Wednesday.
“While your country is cold, we have found Canadians to be very friendly, warm and open,” said Doll.
Lisa Erven, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada,” said the forecast calls for a mix of “messy winter weather” for Thursday afternoon through Friday midday, followed by a warm mild air mass coming up from the south for the weekend, bringing single-digit temperatures and rain.
Gaetz said for his crews, the storm later this week will be “rinse and repeat.”
“It looks like about the same amount of snow but just a different time of day — earlier on in the day rather than starting later at night — so it will definitely affect the evening commute,” said Gaetz.
“If you’re not prepared, don’t try and drive around in the snow or if you drive, takes lots of extra time and make a plan and be ready for winter.”
— With files from Pedro Arrais
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
