The skies might open up in Prince George as Environment Canada has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for the area.
Meteorologist, Doug Lundquist spoke with MyPGNow.com.
“We’re thinking that the conditions are there with a cold front looming within the central interior today that there could be more severe thunderstorms later on this afternoon or perhaps into the evening, so it’s definitely something to watch for.”
He outlined that the accumulation total often varies, depending on where you are.
“It’s very variable with thunderstorms where you could get nothing in some locations and maybe get 10 millimetres in others and that could be the difference from one side of the street to the other. Severe thunderstorms when they do develop can come with heavy rain, intense wind, and of course, lighting.”
Lundquist also touched the subtle differences between a watch and a warning when it comes to extreme weather.
“We set up a watch and it might be early in the morning where we see that the air is really moist with a cold front coming and the combination of all these things are favourable for severe thunderstorms but we haven’t seen the whites of its eyes yet so were kind of just thinking maybe and we usually make a bigger area where we’ll put out a watch for all of the central interior and then as the day goes by and we see storms develop and it looks serious in some areas, we might hone in on that and get observations on severe weather will narrow it down and put out a warning for the areas under more significant risk.”