White Christmas in Kamloops, Okanagan not looking likely

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, dream on because so far the weather signs aren’t pointing strongly towards a winter wonderland on Dec. 25.

With Christmas still two weeks away, Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon says it’s a little far out to forecast Christmas snow conditions.

However, Sekhon does say, following the last couple of days’ snow, the forecast is for a “fairly dry stretch coming up in the next week to 10 days, with the little snow on the ground already melting."

A look at Environment Canada’s forecast for the next week, which puts us to Dec. 18, shows very little precipitation from Kamloops south to Penticton, with daily highs ranging from a few degrees above to a few degrees below zero in that time.

Forecasts for longer than seven days are notoriously difficult to be accurate but private weather forecasters at Accuweather is predicting the possibility of snow on the 15, 17 and 18 of December for Penticton, and on Dec. 14, 18 and 25 in Kamloops, with temperature highs at or above the freezing mark right up until Christmas.

Sekhon says the possibility of a white Christmas, where there is at least two centimetres of snow on the ground, is 55 per cent in  Kamloops.

There are no figures for Vernon, but Kelowna has a 63 per cent chance of a white Christmas and Penticton has a 30 to 35 per cent chance.

A 'perfect' Christmas – one where there is snow on the ground and snow falling Christmas day – happens 25 per cent of the time in Kamloops, 26 per cent of the time in Kelowna and only 11 per cent of the time in Penticton, he says.

There are no figures for Vernon, but numbers there would likely be slightly higher than Kelowna’s.

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