When Chilliwack, B.C., received its annual snowfall in just 3 days

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

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Chilliwack, B.C., usually gets 85 cm of snow a year.

In 2017, from Friday, Feb. 4, to Sunday, Feb. 6, 81.2 cm of snow fell over B.C.'s seventh-largest city. Though the storm meant the children would have some snow days, but there were a lot of safety concerns.

The storm affected many other areas in Fraser Valley, including Langley, Abbotsford, Hope, Mission and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows.

Chilliwack's Mayor Sharon Gaetz asked residents of the city to stay home. She shared that, "We've been warning residents, asking people to get ready. Make sure you have an emergency kit ready to go, make sure you have enough groceries. If the roads become impassable due to freezing rain then we want you to be safe and stay home."

The February 2017 storm in Vancouver. Courtesy of Jeff Harrington

Though the storm was forecasted, giving the city time to prepare, Gaetz said that "We simply can't keep up," adding, "People are struggling, especially when people get to the ends of their streets and there are huge walls of snow."

The city opened a warming centre and provided free sandbags to help residents keep storm drains clear.

Over the weekend, the storm caused 128,000 residents to have power outages.

Gaetz said that "I've lived in Chilliwack pretty well all my life,...and I can tell you honestly I've never seen anything like this.

This is what it looked like:

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Thumbnail image: Courtesy of Jeff Harrington