We may be nearly into summer and well into wildfire season, but forecasters are calling for snow on mountain highways overnight tonight.
Environment Canada has a special weather statement in place for the Coquihalla and for the Okanagan Connector because of flurries expected.
Forecaster Doug Lundquist says most Southern Interior mountain passes could see between two and five centimetres of snow, while the Connector could see up to 10 cm.
“It usually melts pretty fast, but not without perhaps giving us a little bit of a headache first. We could perhaps get a few centimetres collecting on the highway or on the grass beside it, maybe in some locations up to 10. But it’s pretty typical this time of year to get at least one cold spell that does something like this,” Lundquist says.
“It’s the time of year where we get into systems that are somewhat more convective in nature. We could have perhaps some thunderstorms involved with this whole thing, and more often than not it’s almost more like small hail that we get this time of year, and it can collect over the high terrain.”
The special weather statement is also in place for Highway 1 through the Shuswap from the Eagle to Rogers Pass, for Highway 5 from Tete Jaune Cache to the Alberta border, for Highway 3 through the Allison Pass and for several other routes.
As temperatures warm, the snow is expected to change to rain sometime tomorrow.
“I think actually this whole system is more of a good news story than bad, in the sense that we really need rain. And I think there will be quite a few showers around tomorrow. We might get anywhere from five to 15 or 20 millimetres across the southwest Interior depending on where you live. So I think actually it’s more of a positive news story than it is negative.”
The special weather statement also is for #BCHwy1 from the Eagle to Rogers Pass, for #BCHwy3 east of #HopeBC, for #BCHwy5 from Tete Jaune Cache to the Alberta border and other routes. @environmentca tells @RadioNLNews this system will be good news for much-needed precipitation. pic.twitter.com/S2Ol8Dq5wy
— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) June 6, 2019
