Southeastern British Columbia, including the East Kootenay, is in for a very rainy weekend.
According to Matt Loney, meteorologist with Environment Canada, a low pressure centre is going to be tracking southwest and northeast, mainly affecting southern Alberta, but with plenty of rain spilling over the divide into eastern B.C., starting Friday evening and really getting going through the rest of the weekend.
"Right now there鈥檚 still a bit of uncertainty about the amounts regionally speaking, but certainly over southeastern B.C., the Kootenays, they can expect anywhere from 40-to-80 millimetres of rain," Loney said. "It鈥檚 going to be over about a 36-hour duration give or take, maybe 36-to-42 hours give or take, so that鈥檚 certainly quite a bit of rainfall."
Loney added there is a chance for embedded thunderstorms within this system as well, which could mean rainfall amounts closer to 80 millimetres in certain areas.
"It鈥檚 definitely significant, certainly a generous amount of rain is on the way," Loney said.
Further east in Calgary 90-to-100 millimetres of rain could fall this weekend, coinciding with 12th anniversary of the city's catastrophic floods, which started on June 19, 2013. At that time the East Kootenay also dealt with a great deal of high water and flooding.
Loney said there will be some instability following this low pressure centre, with a persistent upper trough lingering into the early part of next week. Rain amounts should taper off by around midday Sunday, with an organized band of precipitation winding down, creating seasonal showers into Monday.
Temperatures this weekend will be well below seasonal averages, dropping from highs of above 20 C on Thursday to as low as seven degrees during the day on Saturday.
Be sure to check Environment Canada for continued updates. The Bulletin will have an update from the River Forecast Centre on Thursday, June 19.
