Big White not concerned about ski conditions as winter ending early

The warm and dry winter continued in February in Kamloops and the Okanagan, but at least one local ski hill isn’t worried about it. 

Temperatures were above normal last month in Kamloops and the Okanagan, and precipitation was well below normal for most of the region. 

Kamloops had a mean temperature of 2.4 Celsius when normally it’s 0.2 C in February. Kelowna’s mean temperature was 2.3 C when it’s normally 0.3 C. Vernon had its sixth warmest February on record with a mean temperature of 1.9 C compared to the normal of -1.1 C. In Penticton, the average temperature was 2.6 C compared to the normal of 0.8 C.

The region had less than half of its normal precipitation across the board.

Kamloops had 6 millimetres of precipitation in February out of the normal 12 mm, Kelowna had 5 mm compared to the normal 19 mm, Vernon had 5 mm out of the normal 25 mm and Penticton had 8 mm out of the normal 19 mm. 

Environment Canada meteorologist Colin Fong said a weather system could bring some messy conditions this week to the mountain passes and ski resorts with rain expected for the valley bottoms.  

“This week is going to be more of a messier mix of flurries or rain showers when we’re talking about the mountain passes. So not completely snow, just that messy wet snow, rain mix,” Fong said.

“We’re looking at freezing levels between 1,500 to 2,000 meters which means even at those ski slopes it’s going to be pretty mild.”

Big White Ski Resort had some warm days recently — including a high of 5 C Monday — with a freezing level of 3,000 metres. But the resort’s senior vice president Michael J. Ballingall told iNFOnews.ca he’s expecting more snow before the resort’s scheduled closing date, April 6.

“We get a lot of snow in the month of March,” he said.

He said the mountain usually closes when there’s still around 150 to 200 centimetre snow base. Currently Big White has a snow base is at 157 cm. 

“We could ski until the May long weekend, it’s just once the golf courses open, once soccer and baseball start people go somewhere else,” he said.

There’s some snow in the forecast for Big White with between 7 to 16 cm by the end of the week.

Sun Peaks Resort had a high of 2 C Monday and a chance of flurries and mixed precipitation expected throughout the week as daily high temperatures could stay above 0 C. 

SilverStar Mountain Resort also has above freezing temperatures and mixed precipitation in the forecast this week. 

Apex Mountain Resort has daily high temperatures around 2 C with a chance of flurries or mixed precipitation for most of this week.

SilverStar, Apex and Big White closed their skating rinks today.

Fong with Environment Canada said the warm weather is likely going to continue as we head into the end of the winter. 

“It’s going to be quite warm and mild to start off the month, not seeing any cold Arctic air coming down anytime soon,” he said.