A windstorm, which delivered peak gusts of up to 70 kilometres at the Trial Islands Lighthouse Monday evening, led to downed power lines around Greater Victoria and a fire in the West Shore.
“It sounds like there’s been impact with plenty of limbs coming down,” said meteorologist Lisa Erven of Environment Canada.
At about 4:30 p.m. West Shore RCMP reported Sooke Road was closed between West Shore Parkway and Luxton Road in Langford, while fire crews battled a “significant brush fire caused by a downed power line.” Police asked people to avoid the area; the road was re-opened about 6:15 p.m.
During the afternoon, about 4,000 customers were without power in areas that included Langford, Metchosin, Sooke, Highlands and Sooke. Most of the outages were weather related with trees and branches falling onto power lines. By 7 p.m. that number was down to about 640.
Sailing waits for B.C. Ferries passengers on Monday were holiday related.
Erven said there were northeasterly winds of 20 to 30 kilometres per hour with gusts of 50 to 55 kilometres.
Environment Canada had issued a weather statement for a wide portion of the province calling for strong gusty winds through the central Interior and out to the coast. The majority of the high winds were forecast for the extreme tip of southern Vancouver Island.
The weather alert was also deemed necessary because it’s the Labour Day holiday and more people were expected to be outside.
“It was done, not only because we saw the possibility of strong wind gusts impacting communities, but this is also a long weekend so lots of people are outside engaged in a variety of activities on land and water.
The winds were expected to ease off after sunset, from about 8 to 10 p.m., with a light easterly component dying off after midnight, said Erven.