SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

KELOWNA – You may want to re-think your Family Day Long Weekend travel plans if they include a road trip to the coast or Alberta.

Two weather systems are approaching the Southern Interior and they’re expected to leave up to 60 cm of snow in the mountain passes over the next few days.

Environment Canada is concerned enough about the drastic change in the weather it has issued a Special Weather Statement to get the word out.

The forecasters says a complex Pacific weather system will move across the Interior Monday and into Tuesday.

The snow will start Sunday night on the Sea to Sky Highway on the coast and Monday morning over the Southern Interior highway passes.

The routes included in the statement are the Coquihalla from Merritt to Hope, Highway 3 from Princeton to Hope through the Allison Pass, Highway 3 from the Kootenay Pass to the Paulson Summit and the TransCanada from Rogers Pass to Eagle Pass.

The first system will drop from 20 to 30 cm of snow by Tuesday afternoon. Most of it will fall over the Coquihalla Highway.

The second system will hit Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The meteorologists at Environment Canada are predicting another 30 cm of snow for the Interior mountain passes which could me mixed with rain for a short period of time.

To contact the reporter for this story, email halexander@infotelnews.ca or call 250-491-0331.