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Environment Canada issues wind warning to much of Vancouver Island

‘Strong winds that may cause damage are expected or occurring,’ says forecaster
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Choppy waters had subsided by 2:30 p.m. but stormy skies remained over Campbell River on Sunday afternoon. Photo by David Gordon Koch/Campbell River

Strong winds that hit parts of Vancouver Island yesterday are expected to continue into tonight.

According to alerts posted by Environment Canada just before 5 a.m. Monday, wind warnings of gusts between 60 and 80 km/h per hour are expected for the west coast of the Island, as well as the east coast north of Nanaimo.

“Strong winds that may cause damage are expected or occurring,” the alert states. “A Pacific frontal system will approach the South Coast tonight. Ahead of the front, southeasterly winds of 80 km/h over West Vancouver Island will develop overnight. The wind is expected to ease Tuesday morning as the front moves southeastward.

“Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage. Be prepared to adjust your driving with changing road conditions due to high winds.”

The same storm could cause winds in excess of 90 km/h across the Island’s northern tip.

“Southeasterly winds in excess of 90 km/h are expected by early this afternoon over exposed coastal sections of Haida Gwaii and the North Coast. These very strong winds will spread to coastal sections of the Central Coast and North Vancouver Island later this afternoon. The winds are expected to ease overnight as the front moves southward.”

Wind warnings are issued when there is a significant risk of damaging winds. Environment Canada first issued a warning as BC Hydro restored power to more than 1,500 customers in Campbell River on Sunday.

READ MORE: Environment Canada issued a special weather statement on Dec. 7

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The warning urged residents to monitor Environment Canada’s alerts and forecasts, and noted that severe weather could be reported by email at BCstorm@canada.ca or by Twitter using the hashtag #BCStorm.

Meanwhile, BC Hydro workers restored power to more than 1,500 after an outage attributed to a fallen tree.

An outage list on the power utility’s website said that a downed tree on hydro wires knocked out power for 1,570 customers on Sunday morning.

Power was out from 9:10 to about 10:40 a.m. west of Homewood Rd., east of the Gold River Hwy., north of 9th Ave. and south of the Island Hwy., according to BC Hydro.

@davidgordonkoch
david.koch@campbellrivermirror.com

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