Environment Canada warns of high winds, power outages, snowfall on B.C. highways

Environment Canada has issued wind warnings for parts of B.C.’s Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands.

The weather agency says a low pressure system is bringing strong gusts of up to 90 km/h to parts of Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, expected to last into Sunday morning.

Environment Canada says it issues the warnings when there’s a “significant risk” of damage from high winds, including power outages, and is also warning of snowfall on the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt, and on a mountainous stretch of Highway 3 in the B.C. interior.

B.C. Hydro says its dealing with a number of outages in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, where trees have fallen down across wires, affecting thousands of customers.

The company says more than 3,000 c