3 weeks ahead of schedule
23 mm of rain, snow nearly double November’s normal
A few more flurries may be in store for Kelowna today, but the rest of the week is looking to be rainy.
“The chance of snow is fairly limited for next week,” said Armel Castellan, meteorologist with Environment Canada. “It’s going to be more of a problem on the highway passes than in the valley.”
Today in Kelowna, the forecast high is 4 C with a 30 per cent chance of flurries early in the morning and 60 per cent chance of flurries late.
“As Sunday progresses, the warmth of the Pacific air is going to erode the cold, and you’re going to see it transition to rain through the course of the day, and that continues to be true for Monday,” said Castellan. “You’ll have intermittent precipitation for the first half of the week.”
From Nov. 1-9, 22.6 millimetres of precipitation had fallen in Kelowna, almost double the normal for the month of November.
“Lots of rain and snow have fallen, and it’s been colder than normal by about three weeks,” said Castellan.
“It’s been an early start to what is a very wintery first third of November.”
This month so far, there has been about 20 centimetres of snow in Kelowna, he said.
After a cold spell, temperatures are starting to return to normal November levels, which is typically a high of 4 C and a low of -2 C.
On Sunday, the forecast high is 4 C with a 60 per cent chance of showers, and on Monday the forecast high is 7 C with rain.
With the snow starting to melt in many areas, city crews are watching for any issues with storm grates getting clogged.
“A layer of Maple leaves over the grates is all it takes for the water not to drain,” said Mike Morrell, utilities supervisor with the City of Kelowna. “We try to encourage residents if they have catch basins near their property to keep the leaves clear or to clear the snow or slush away so the water can drain. It doesn’t take much effort and that really helps people walking down the sidewalk to not get drenched when a car roars by.”
As of Friday afternoon, there had been no reports of any issues with snow melting or drainage in the city, said Morrell.