Return to winter will be brief for the Okanagan and Kamloops

Kamloops and the Okanagan are set for some colder weather after an incredibly mild winter, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to stick around long.

After a warm and dry January in the Okanagan, this week is supposed to see overnight low temperatures drop from -5 Celsius to -11 C this week. Daily high temperatures in the Okanagan are forecast to be just below freezing for the rest of the week.

It’s supposed to be a bit colder in Kamloops with an overnight low temperature of -13 C on Feb. 19 and daily high temperatures between -4 C and -1 C.

“Certainly some cold arctic air is pushing down from the north,” Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang told iNFOnews.ca. “So that will be seeping in, and it’ll stay around, looks like towards the end of the week.”

A weather system from the Pacific is then projected to bring back warmer temperatures around 4 C this weekend and early next week with a chance of flurries or rain.

“It’s a Pacific system which tends to bring warm air and precipitation with it, and especially when that warm, moist air meets with that colder arctic air that’s sitting in the valleys,” Lang said.

A few centimetres fell in the valley bottom over the weekend, a rare sight this winter, but the ski hills got a bit more.

On Feb. 16, Big White Ski Resort had 13 cm, SilverStar Mountain Resort saw 8 cm of snow, Sun Peaks Resort had 3 cm and Apex Mountain Resort also had 3 cm.

This week areas at higher elevations, like ski hills, aren’t supposed to see the warmer temperatures that have thawed some of the snow in recent weeks, and there are some flurries in the forecast for local ski resorts.

Mountain pass highways are anticipating some snow. The Okanagan Connector has a 60 per cent chance of flurries until Thursday and the Coquihalla Highway could get up to 6 cm by Thursday.

Lang said it shouldn’t be a major blast of winter but folks shouldn’t let their guard down yet.

“By the time it gets to the middle of February, people are itching for winter to be over with, except for the skiers,” she said. “But I wouldn’t put away the snow shovels quite yet, and I certainly wouldn’t take out the flip-flops.”