Mother Nature is a winter person and she proved it with a vengeance Tuesday morning.
Several Peninsula residents shared their photos of how much snow fell overnight in their neighbourhood, with most reporting from 28 to nearly 35 centimetres of snow by around 7 a.m.
Provincial and local authorities and news broadcasters urged drivers to stay home and avoid non-essential travel on Tuesday, if possible, with several spun-out vehicles and accidents reported on multiple routes throughout the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
Twitter user Brad Atchison shared a video of South Surrey shortly before 6:30 a.m. to show the snowfall.
“This is the most snow I’ve seen for an area that I’ve been chasing today,” he says in the video.
Winner winner chicken dinner it seems. South Surrey was hit very hard. I have 28cm of Snow and rapidly still counting… 620am. #BCStorm pic.twitter.com/TKakUxvN54
— Brad Atchison (@Brad604) December 20, 2022
“This is Croydon at 32nd diversion at 32nd avenue. It’s a lot of snow.”
He then uses a blue ruler, which almost disappears into the snow, to measure.
“Yeah. That’s 28 centimetres.
Elsewhere in South Surrey, about an hour later, popular meteorologist Russ Lacate posted a photo showing close to 35 cm of snow in his backyard.
Close to 35 cm in South #Surrey #BCsnow #BCStorm pic.twitter.com/fR1MoTYZ67
— Russ Lacate (@RLacate) December 20, 2022
Lacate responded to another Twitter user asking if he’d managed to dig his way out yet.
“Not yet…lol” he replied, with a photo of his vehicle still in the driveway, buried in snow.
Not yet…lol pic.twitter.com/ep0aqgS0iK
— Russ Lacate (@RLacate) December 20, 2022
The weather also created some gratitude for good neighbours.
Letter writer Simon Johntston wrote to tell Peace Arch News how he planned to drive his wife to work Tuesday morning, as she “had deadlines to keep.”
“From the underground parkade, I gunned my VW Jetta up the ramp and succeeded, on the third attempt, to reach 17a Avenue. But knee-high snow prevented me from driving any further,” he wrote.
“My cussing, underscored by screaming tires, must have alerted the neighbours. Suddenly, there was Ron from the second floor, Clayton from the third and Mouda from the fourth. And within minutes, my car was unstuck and safely returned to its parking stall.
“Having good neighbours is a mitzvah, and a Christmas gift all rolled into one. Thank you,” he wrote.
The City of Surrey features a snow plow tracker on its website that activates when the snow plowing starts.
“Follow our winter equipment to better plan your trip. Our snow plow tracker provides approximate time frames for areas that were last serviced,” the site states.
The City of White Rock has a snow clearing priority map and notes “barricades are also set up to stop traffic from entering roads which become dangerous in inclement weather, such as steep hills like Oxford Street,” on its site.
