Image Credit: (Greg Lowis — City of Merritt)

By Aaron Schulze

Atmospheric River

Trio of storms could be dire for watersheds, provide extremely strong winds for Kamloops: Environment Canada

Nov 24, 2021 | 6:31 AM

KAMLOOPS — What a meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change calls a “train” of storms hitting British Columbia should leave the Southern Interior cities relatively unscathed but may cause concern for watersheds.

Doug Lundquist says all three storms with a moisture source from southwest of Hawaii will hit the province on Thursday, Saturday through Sunday, and Tuesday (Nov. 25, 27 to 28, and 30). The third storm is the most troubling for him.

“It’s coming with really high freezing levels,” Lundquist told CFJC Today. “Some models are indicating 4,000-metre freezing levels, which would be above the tops of any mountain in B.C. Condensation on any snow that’s happening in the mid-to-high terrain, plus the winds we’ll get, will help the snow melt faster.”

Lundquist is worried the Tuesday storm and the rain and snowmelt that comes with it could see into the upper watershed of the Similkameen, Tulameen, and Coldwater Rivers.

“I’m worried because these places are already having problems,” he said. “We’re just adding more moisture and melt. Say it only turns out half as big as the last event, this is not something we really want to see, and more than one storm in a row as well. I’m worried about the corridor and Princeton getting cut off again.”

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According to Lundquist, the general consensus from meteorologists is the trio of upcoming storms will provide about as much rainfall as the atmospheric river event that lasted until Nov. 14. Cities like Kamloops may see extremely strong winds on the Thursday storm, but the trio of storms could be dire for watersheds south of Merritt or near Princeton.

“As we go through, it may land in a different area – up towards Sunshine Coast or down to Washington – it’s too soon to say exactly where on the coast the worst is going to hit,” he says. “The dry belts of the Southwest Interior is probably safest. [Emergency managers with the province] are talking about shoring up things like the dikes already. Wherever we have the choke points last time, we have to fix them and make them better over the next week.”