Southern Interior ski hills, mountain passes getting snow, strong winds

Local ski hills and mountain passes are getting a dump of snow while the valley bottoms in the Thompson-Okanagan region are getting the wet and windy leftovers.

Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna is expecting up to 25 centimetres of snow by March 12 with a few more by the weekend. SilverStar Mountain Resort near Vernon is expecting 5 cm with trace snowfall amounts in the forecast every day for the rest of the week.

High winds around 35 km/h are expected for Big White over the weekend, but the other ski hills aren’t anticipating such gusty days.

Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops should be getting around 10 cm by the weekend and Apex Mountain Resort near Penticton is expecting snow every day for the rest of the week.

Serious storms are sticking around mountain passes on the Coquihalla Highway and Okanagan Connector.

The Coquihalla Highway is expected to get 60 cm by Thursday morning with high winds up to 100 km/h until Friday. The Okanagan Connector is also expecting high winds but 25 cm of snow.

Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang said drivers should avoid the highways if they can.

“Anybody contemplating driving through the passes might see if they can sort of postpone that until after things settle down a bit,” she said.

Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon and Penticton are forecasted to get the leftovers from the storms coming over the mountains from the Pacific.

There’s a chance of snow in Kelowna overnight, a rare sight this winter, but temperatures are expected to hit 6 Celsius and sunny over the weekend so any snow accumulation likely won’t stick around.

Kamloops might get 2 cm to 4 cm of snow overnight with winds around 30 km/h, but it’s also supposed to be warmer and sunny this weekend, a high of 6 C on Saturday.

Penticton is supposed to be a bit warmer so a trace amount of rain is expected overnight and 30 km/h winds.

Vernon is anticipating some trace snow and rain mix overnight, up to 5 cm, with a warmer weekend ahead with a daily high of 6 C on Saturday.

Overall, the region is getting a storm system that is expected to bring significant snow and wind to higher elevations, and a trickle of precipitation and wind to the valley bottoms.

“The coastal mountains have a job to do and their job is to kind of wring out that moisture as it slams into them from the Pacific. So what’s left over is sort of what the Okanagan and the Thompson end up with,” Land said.