Metro Vancouver Weather: Snow forecast for higher elevations Tuesday as unseasonal cold continues

A combination of cold Alaskan air, below normal water temperatures and continuing wet Pacific fronts are creating a chilly and soggy spring in Metro Vancouver.

“It’s been a bit of a bummer for spring,” said Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton on Monday. “We have a lot of cold air aloft that has come down from Alaska and across from Siberia and that’s made a really cold trough. We have been persistently below seasonal for temperatures.”

Hamilton said that starting Tuesday morning and into Wednesday snow and hail was expected in high elevation areas in West Vancouver, North Vancouver and Burnaby — including Simon Fraser University and the Sea to Sky Highway.

Metro Vancouver has already seen snow in six months straight for the first time in a century, from November to April.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, a cold subsurface temperature anomaly off the B.C. coast persists and is due to a third consecutive La Niña winter. This cool offshore water is forecast to persist through early spring and have a cooling influence on B.C. weather.