The frigid temperatures B.C.’s South Coast has been experiencing are going to stick around for a couple of more days, with some dicey weather in the mix.
Don’t expect the mercury to get above zero anytime soon, as Meteorologist Michael Kuss says Tuesday will bring a new arctic blast as things slowly warm up.
“The arctic air is still in place for a couple of more days. The change comes Tuesday evening into Wednesday and with that change, it looks like we’re going to get precipitation, probably in the form of snow, but dangerously, potentially in the form of freezing rain as we start to see some of that warmer air filling in.”
Kuss explains areas could get anywhere from no snow at all to up to 10 centimetres.
The upside, he adds, is Monday and Tuesday won’t feel as cold as last Friday, which saw record-breaking lows.
While it’s good news if you don’t like the extreme cold, we’ll then be dealing with a mix of snow and freezing rain while things remain somewhat chilly.
“The cold air remains locked in place into Tuesday, but as we start to see some of that warm Pacific moist air work back into the region, we are going to get precipitation and it could be a messy mix.”
Kuss touches on what the rest of the week will look like once the snow subsides.
“Be careful what you wish for. Yes, we will get back to seasonal by the end of the week and into the upcoming weekend, but that means grey and wet. Rain up ahead, temperatures not sweltering but back up into the mid-to-upper single digits.”
This past weekend, the cold led to burst pipes in a number of places. The emergency room at a hospital in Mission was flooded and caused water damage, while a hospice in Surrey had to move residents around because of freezing pipes, and a couple of restaurants in Vancouver were forced to close.
There was also water seen gushing onto the car deck on a BC Ferries vessel.
●How to winter-proof your home
A lot of work crews have been busy since Friday.
“The phones are ringing off the hooks. A lot of frozen pipes. A lot of ‘no heat’ calls and that’s just getting compounded more and more the longer that this cold snap is lasting,” said Alex Milani, the commercial division manager at Milani Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning.
He adds they’ve taken a lot of calls for burst pipes and heating issues. “Nobody is immune when it comes to cold climates and cold temperatures, so it’s been really a mix of everybody throughout the Lower Mainland.”
Milani adds another concern is the infrastructure of older homes, such as those built in the 1950s or 1960s.
“Especially older homes that may not have the best kind of insulation, that can lead to issues with pipes freezing, and sometimes when they freeze and the water expands inside these pipes, it can actually crack the outside of the pipe and when that thaws out, you can have a leak or burst pipe or flood that can occur.”
In the short-term, he suggests leaving your taps on a slow drip.
“Moving water is a lot more difficult to freeze than standing water in a pipe, so by leaving a faucet on that is at a slow drip, that’s going to make the chances of that line freezing a lot lower.
“Another thing that can be done, especially in these older homes, is leaving your kitchen cabinets open. That’s going to allow for warm air to circulate under these kitchen cabinet areas where a lot of times there are plumbing lines that run through the cabinets or even behind.”
He says you should also do a walkaround inspection of your home to check for holes or cracks that may be letting in cold air, close the garage door at all times, and unhook your outdoor hose.
For the future with more extreme weather in B.C.’s future, he says if you’re going away on holiday, leave the heat on at a low temperature and turn the water off, so there’s no risk of a burst pipe.
Milani says everyone should know where the shut-off valve is for their home, in case a pipe does burst.
He says as the Lower Mainland slowly thaws out, you’ll want to continue keeping an eye out for any potential leaks that may appear once the region warms up.
source & photo : CityNews
