A weather system is moving through the Kootenays as of Thursday, Jan. 17 that will bring upwards of five centimetres to Cranbrook and area by late Thursday evening, through the pass those amounts will be closer to 10cm.
Mainroad issued a winter weather advisory for the East Kootenay calling for up to 15cm over the course of the next week.
“Our crews will be proactively treating local highways with anti-icing chemicals prior to the weather event,” read the advisory issued late Wednesday.
“During the weather event, we will continue applying anti-icing chemicals and/or winter abrasive, and commence snow removal operations as required.
“This will continue on all highways until the event passes and roadways are returned to the acceptable standard and back to normal.”
Light flurries will continue through Friday and as we get into the weekend another system will move in, that will be, “a little bit stronger but also quite a bit milder,” according to Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald.
“So on Saturday for down in the valley in around Creston, will probably just be two to three centimetres of pretty wet snow, but the temperature’s going to be coming up to close to the freezing mark,” said MacDonald. “But up in the pass that could be potentially another five to ten centimetres.”
MacDonald explained that the snow is expected to be wetter, not the light, fluffy snow that piles up. By Sunday, the cold front associated with the system will have pushed through so we will finally get some sun.
“I know it’s been a pretty dreary week this week, the entire Kootenays have just been socked in in that valley cloud. But as of Sunday we’ll get into a northwest flow which will help flush out that moisture and get some sun for the beginning of next week.”
He added that the temperatures for the month of January so far have been an average of -3.6, which is about 2.5 degrees warmer than normal for the month, with the El Niño expected to persist throughout the remainder of the winter, so we can expect milder than normal conditions.
Mainroad’s communications and dispatch office operates 24 hours a day, contact 1-800-665-4929 with any observations orconcerns.
For the latest information on driving conditions, visit Drivebc.ca.
