Rain is beginning to fall across Vancouver Island and you can expect more heading into the weekend, according to Environment Canada.

The forecast for the north island calls for rain for the foreseeable future, with those clouds making their way south later on in the week.

Armel Castellan, Meteorologist with Environment Canada, predicts a wet weekend ahead.

“Those showers should get to us by late week and be with us through Saturday and Sunday,” said Castellan. “This is fairly typical for this time of year, we’re going to start to see our active train of Pacific storms start to affect the Pacific coast.”

He added that the island is currently in the middle of a storm, albeit a very weak one.

According to Castellan, Vancouver Island is caught in an upper cold trough that is giving us intermittent showers along with potential thunder storms. 

On Saturday, looking south, Victoria could see a heavy storm pass over Seattle, bringing with it thunder, lightning and flooding.

Fortunately for the island, those thunderstorms were triggered only once over the Mainland mountain ranges before crossing the Salish Sea.

As for what we are to expect for this year’s winter season, Castellan predicts a pretty typical weather seasonal outlook.

“This year is an El Nino neutral year, so the tropical Pacific is not going to have a strong impact on our fall or winter,” said Castellan. “However the anomalously warm sea surface temperatures in the north east pacific now will. So we’re looking at a seasonal forecast that’s warmer than normal for fall and may last into the winter.”

So expect summer to start to fade into fall and keep that umbrella handy because you’re going to need it later this week.