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January 15, 2020 - 9:09 AM
Transit is delayed and public schools and universities are closed — it's a snow day in the Lower Mainland.
Around 15 school districts from Vancouver to Chilliwack, in addition to others in Vancouver Island, have declared a snow day and Bus and SkyTrain service across the region is significantly impacted due to inclement weather.
"We are advising customers that today should be considered an extreme travel day and to please stay home where possible," TransLink announced early this morning.
A powerful snowstorm that has closed part of Highway 1 east of Vancouver, and has led to a rare blizzard warning for a region just north of the city.
Around 10 to 15 more centimetres of snow is headed for Metro Vancouver and onward to Abbotsford. It was already blanketed as the day got underway with up to 25 cm in some spots.
If this is making you wonder when the last time you heard a snow day called in the Okanagan or Kamloops, let's just say it was a while ago.
According to the Central Okanagan School District, they can only remember declaring a snow day and closing schools twice in the last 30 years.
School District No. 22 (Vernon) had much the same response with no one at the district remembering a time in recent memory when they closed for a snow day. School District No.73 (Kamloops-Thompson) said the only time all their schools closed was on a single day in 2015.
Of course, snow is to be expected in this area but that's not to say that people around here want to take a stiff upper lip approach to all inclement weather.
A petition was started by the Canadian Youth Society, a youth led non-profit group, 11 months ago has a goal of 25,000 signatures with more than 16,000 collected so far.
“Due to an unexpected amount of snowfall, transportation will be an issue for students as walking and driving would be unsafe and difficult in the deep snow,” the post on the petition reads.
As for today, all systems are go despite a solid dusting of snow and temperatures around the region averaging around -18 C.
Extreme cold, winter storm or snowfall warnings are in effect for all but a handful of regions from British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories all the way to northern Manitoba.
Bitterly cold Arctic air has skidded southward across Western Canada carrying wind chill values in Prairie provinces that are at or below -50 C, while wind chill values in B.C.'s interior are around -40 C.
Victoria, Metro Vancouver and much of B.C.'s inner south coast will also be battered by strong winds over the next 24 hours, as wind warnings are posted and forecasters say gusts of up to 90 km/h have potential to bring down trees and cause power outages.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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