A powerful windstorm in the early hours of Wednesday morning knocked down trees, causing road closures and power outages across the North Shore.
About 19,000 customers across North Vancouver and West Vancouver were without power early Wednesday. Damage to transmission lines feeding into the Capilano substation cut power to about 12,000 of those customers.
“North Vancouver and West Vancouver certainly the hardest hit,” said Tanya Fish, spokeswoman for BC Hydro.
Much of the power had been restored by about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday although about 3,500 customers remained without power at noon – most of those in North Vancouver.
Fish said crews are working on restoring the power, but BC Hydro did not have an estimated time when that would be completed.
The power outages meant a delayed start to the school day for a number of students in North Vancouver. Canyon Heights, Carson Graham, Cleveland, Handsworth, Larson, Montroyal and Westview schools opened at 11 a.m. while Carisbrooke, Highlands and Mountainside opened at 12: 30 p.m. Wednesday after power was restored.
Braemar and Dorothy Lynas were still without power at noon and will remain closed for the remainder of the day. They are expected to open as usual on Thursday.
In West Vancouver, power was also knocked out at Cedardale, Westcot and Cypress Park schools but by 8 am the power was back on and school wasn’t affected.
A windstorm has caused a number of outages in the Lower Mainland, primarily in North Vancouver. Crews are currently working to restore power to the local substation which should restore the majority of the affected customers in that area. pic.twitter.com/Pt8foLoJKb
— BC Hydro (@bchydro) November 27, 2019
The overnight wind storm kept municipal crews busy cleaning up Wednesday morning.
A traffic light outage at the intersection of Taylor Way and Marine Drive caused significant traffic delays early Wednesday morning and detours were in place in the 3600 block of Marine Drive after a tree fell across the road.
Parks crews from Metro Vancouver were also out Wednesday clearing debris in Capilano River Regional Park, as well as in Grouse Mountain and Lynn Headwaters parks although all trails remained open.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver also had a delayed opening Wednesday morning as staff cleared up debris.
Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald said the powerful windstorm which descended over the North Shore was brought on by a unique combination of weather events.
Arctic air and outflow winds pushed down to the coast from northern B.C. at the same time as a major "bomb cyclone" low pressure storm forming further down the coast in Oregon and California helped suck that cold air over the North Shore mountains, said MacDonald.
Then a temperature inversion just above the mountain tops compressed that wind as it came shooting down into West Vancouver and North Vancouver between 1 a.m and 4 a.m., he said.
“What happened overnight was very unique,” he said.
While automated weather stations weren’t in the right places to capture the peak of the wind storms, MacDonald estimated the wind speeds at between 80 and 90 kilometres an hour, based on the damage caused.
The rest of the week is expected to be cold with temperatures dipping to -4 on Friday night, which could feel more like -12 with the wind chill, said MacDonald.
By Sunday night, “you may notice a couple of snowflakes in our forecast,” he added.
