A new storm system is bearing down on British Columbia and is expected to bring another blast of potentially damaging winds, as the province continues to clean up from this week鈥檚 powerful bomb cyclone.

Environment Canada has issued a fresh round of special weather statements ahead of the storm鈥檚 expected arrival on Friday, covering Vancouver Island, the Sunshine and Central coasts, and Howe Sound where winds up to 90 km/h are forecast.

The agency says while the new storm is 鈥渘ot as intense鈥� as Tuesday鈥檚 and Wednesday鈥檚 bomb cyclone that cut power to more than 300,000 BC Hydro customers, the high winds 鈥渕ay still cause damage and disruptions, and slow down cleanup efforts.鈥�

It鈥檚 the latest in a string of powerful fall storms, including an atmospheric river weather system in mid-October that caused flash flooding and dumped almost 300 millimetres of rain on parts of the province.

Armel Castellan, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the series of stormy weather is a product of a sustained upper trough, a low-pressure area high in the atmosphere.

He says that while such a pattern is 鈥減retty typical鈥� at this time of year, it doesn鈥檛 always last so long.

鈥淲e are dealing with an overall upper trough pattern offshore in the last two months, since mid to late September, and so that鈥檚 been a persistent stormy pattern, if you will,鈥� Castellan said, adding that 鈥渟ometimes we deal with it in days or a week, maybe two weeks.鈥�

The bomb cyclone 鈥� a system triggered by a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure 鈥� brought winds as high as 170 km/h on Tuesday.

The system died down on Wednesday, but not before winds of more than 100 km/h continued to lash parts of the B.C. coast. Remote Sartine Island off northern Vancouver Island was hit by the most powerful gusts on Wednesday, reaching 113 km/h.

Castellan said that when an upper trough lasts two months or more 鈥渋t starts to become a fairly long ingrained pattern, and then it starts to become a little bit long for the environment to handle.鈥�

He said that could produce conditions like in 2021, when a trough from September to early December was marked by two bomb cyclones, a tornado in Vancouver and devastating flooding caused by an atmospheric river that inundated the Sumas Prairie.

鈥淚t does bring us to more susceptibility because the soils are more saturated (and) yet another storm can become devastating. But in and of itself, we do see active periods of stormy pattern with an upper trough fairly often.鈥�

Castellan said B.C. residents could expect some relief from 鈥渕ore of a cool and dry鈥� weather pattern this weekend, 鈥渁 stark change鈥� from the weather over the past few days.

BC Hydro said it had restored power to more than 90 per cent of customers who lost electricity this week.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, about 25,000 customers remained without power, mostly on Vancouver Island, out of the 320,000 customers affected by outages.

BC Hydro said crews have been 鈥渨orking around the clock鈥� since Tuesday night, replacing dozens of downed power lines, poles and other electrical equipment.

In the Interior, the office issued a snowfall warning for the Chilcotin region, with up to 10 centimetres expected until Friday morning.