A building ridge of high pressure has brought sunshine to the entire BC coast today(April 2, 2011)! As often happens with ridge development, gusty north to northwest winds were reported in many areas. Here is a satellite animation, courtesy of of the University of Washington Atmosperic Services, showing the mostly cloud free skies.

Notice that with heating during the day that isolated convective clouds have formed mostly along the spine of Vancouver Island and the Coast Mountains. (See the RADAR at 6 pm PDT showing cells over southern Vancouver Island). Some showers have developed with a thunderstorm giving a couple of lightning strikes on the Sunshine Coast. There was also local hail reported in Surrey – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c24P9j8VpE

Looks like the dry conditions will unfortunately come to an end on Sunday. The cloud mass on the western edge of the animation will spread to the coast early in the day with a good chance of showers by afternoon. The Lower Mainland however will likely stay dry throughout the day. (Click on the animation to get a larger view).