High winds to hammer Vancouver area and Victoria after heavy rainfall

VANCOUVER – High winds are expected to hammer the Vancouver area and Victoria areas Saturday night, and about 25 centimetres of snow is bound for the B.C. Interior.

Environment Canada meteorologist Ross Macdonald says travellers should be prepared if winds of up to 60 kilometres an hour halt ferry traffic.

A storm making its way through the West Coast dumped about 60 millimetres of rain overnight in Vancouver and about 10 centimetres of snow on Interior highways such as the Kootenay Pass.

Macdonald says such weather systems are not uncommon for this time of year.

He says that except for some road flooding, no damage has been reported so far.

The B.C. government has issued a travel advisory for Highway 5 due to heavy snowfall and rain, and Highway 3 will be closed five kilometres west of Kootenay Pass Summit to five kilometres east of the region for snow removal.