There is an end in sight to the snow

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – It’s been a long time since the Thompson-Okanagan received such a massive dump of snow in such a short time.

“It has been quite an amazing snowfall so far,” Environment Canada meteorologist Lisa Coldwells says.

By 10 a.m. Monday, we were looking at amounts which ranged from 25 centimetres in the South Okanagan, about 31 cm in Kamloops and as high as 36 cm in the North Okanagan and Shuswap.

The winter storm warning remains in effect as the intense winter storm continues to bring heavy snow to the Southern Interior. Another 5 to 10 cm is expected to fall across the entire region Monday.

“Perhaps some places might see even 20 cm so it’s still going to be a snowy day,” Coldwells says.

There is an end in sight as the snow tapers to flurries around midnight Monday.

“There is a slight risk of freezing rain overnight as temperatures in the valleys slowly begin to rise,” she says.

Coldwells says the mercury will climb to zero or plus one Tuesday followed by a couple of cloudy days, “that will allow us to shovel out.”

“Temperatures are going to range from about -2 C to 2 C for the rest of the week, so your typical sort of day in the Thompson-Okanagan.”

She looked into the weather records and there was a really heavy snowfall in the winter of 1993 and in 1998 around New Years.

“There was one also that I spent a long time shovelling my driveway in 2001,” she says. “So since that time, there haven’t been many super heavy snowfalls that occurred all in one day.”

Snowfall amounts as of 10 a.m., Monday, Jan. 5, 2015:

Kamloops     31 cm
Salmon Arm 35 cm
Vernon         35 cm
Kelowna       25 cm
Penticton      10 cm

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.