Flood warnings for Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island with heavy rain, rising temperatures in forecast

The agency that monitors British Columbia's waterways is warning of "minor to significant flooding" in B.C.'s Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island as warming temperatures and persistent rain melt heavy snow.

The River Forecast Centre says in a high stream-flow advisory that a significant weather pattern change will occur this week and cause rapid rises in creeks and rivers, especially at low and mid-elevation watersheds on the coast.

Rivers are expected to begin rising Tuesday and likely peak Wednesday or Thursday, but the storms are still a few days away so the exact location and intensity of the heaviest rainfall is still uncertain.

It says areas that experienced flooding last year may be more vulnerable, due to erosion and other conditions.

However, it also says it will be warmer than November's destructive atmospheric river events and the storm system will likely add to already well-developed snowpack at higher elevations.

Although the advisory warns that flooding could be significant, the forecasting centre also defines a high stream-flow advisory as one in which "no major flooding is expected.''

"The public is advised to stay clear of the fast flowing rivers and potentially unstable riverbanks during the high stream-flow period,'' it says.

In advance of possible flooding, Environment Canada has issued special weather alerts for Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, Howe Sound and the Sunshine Coast.

"Some snowmelt at low levels will contribute to runoff which may result in high stream levels and localized flooding," warns the federal weather agency.

Wind warnings

Environment Canada has also placed the central and north coasts under a wind warning, along with Haida Gwaii and the northern part of Vancouver Island.

An intense storm system approaching the area Monday will bring gusts up to 110 km/h, forecasters say, before the wind reduces in intensity as the day progresses.

For the latest B.C. weather alerts visit Environment Canada.

Hwy 1 closed due to avalanche risk

On Sunday evening, the province announced Highway 1 from Yale to Boston Bar would close on Monday at 8 a.m. PT due to increased avalanche risk.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said in a release that the increased risk "is due to the recent warm weather and upcoming atmospheric river event."

The ministry said the closure in the Fraser Canyon could be in place for several days.

Residents warily watch forecast

For those who were displaced by last year's record-breaking floods, the new warnings are adding to mounting worries about how they will recover.

Trina Enns, whose house in the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford, B.C., is still uninhabitable after the November floods, said there is little she can do to protect her house if floodwaters reach it this week. 

Enns's house is being repaired after more than 45 centimetres of water pooled up in parts of it. 

"I can't do any sandbagging or anything. The water comes up from underneath," she said. "Unfortunately, the drainage in the fields isn't at a place where it will drain properly."

Enns says she lives with a chronic health condition, which means she cannot consider moving out of the area and living elsewhere due to limited resources.

"I'm thinking, 'Oh no, not again.' And like, will this be the future? What will happen in the spring? Is this what we're going to go through all the time?" she said.

The mayor of Princeton, B.C., put out a video on Friday urging residents to clear storm drains of accumulated snow ahead of the forecasted rain. The community was significantly affected by floods in late November.

"Temperatures are supposed to be upwards of 6 C here by middle of next week with rain," Mayor Spencer Coyne told CBC News.

"That has us pretty concerned, especially with the amount of snow that we already have on the ground."

Coyne said the dike repairs made after the last storm are expected to hold up, but he "didn't know what to expect" after the climate disasters that had affected the community in the past year.