Snow plus freezing rain have created “hellish” conditions for Burnaby commuters on Thursday morning.
“It’s chaos right now,” said Travis F., who said his commute, which normally takes 40 minutes, took more than two hours. “The conditions are hellish. Cars are sliding all over the place. I needed someone to push me when I got stuck on Royal Oak. It’s really bad.”
Highway 1 is at a crawl in Burnaby, and drivers are reporting issues on Willingdon, Cariboo hill, Royal Oak, Holdom, plus Gaglardi Way and Burnaby Mountain parkway.
TransLink warned that all SkyTrain lines in Burnaby are backed up and slowed by the conditions. Bus routes are also being delayed.
The conditions led the Burnaby school district to cancel all public school classes for students who did return despite the COVID-19 restrictions. Other schools, like SFU and BCIT, also cancelled in-person classes today.
The Winter Storm Warning is in effect for Metro Vancouver, including the following areas:
- central including the City of Vancouver Burnaby and New Westminster
- North Shore including West Vancouver and North Vancouver
- northeast including Coquitlam and Maple Ridge
- southeast including Surrey and Langley
- southwest including Richmond and Delta
"Hazardous winter conditions are expected," cautions the national weather agency.
The main snow event is set to begin Wednesday evening, thanks to a low pressure system that will spread heavy snow across B.C.'s south coast region.
Metro Vancouver could see 10 to 20 cm of snow, with up to 30 cm possible in the Howe Sound and Fraser Valley.
Snow fell overnight and will transition to rain Thursday in most areas, however, the Fraser Valley is likely to receive freezing rain or continued snow Thursday. Freezing rain is possible in some parts of eastern Metro Vancouver Thursday.
"Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult over some locations. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots will become icy, slippery and hazardous," Environment Canada cautions.
- With files from Lindsay-William Ross, Vancouver is Awesome
