Roads may be slippery

Motorists warned to watch for black ice this morning in wake of storm overnight

Beware of black ice on the roads this morning, especially on the Okanagan Connector highway.

“Black ice (this) morning will be the result of Friday night’s storm,” Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald predicted yesterday afternoon.

“We had to issue a special weather advisory.”

Last night, an intense cold front was expected to rush across the Okanagan and the Okanagan Connector highway linking Peachland with Merritt.

It wasn’t to result in a lot of snow — only two to four centimetres.

“But the real factor is the strong winds that will blow that white stuff around fiercely, creating poor visibility for motorists,” said MacDonald.

“The Connector is prone to wind and this will be even worse. Motorists have to look out, especially in the mid-elevation transition zone where the wind can gust up to 90 kilometres per hour and you can hardly see anything, particularly in the dark.”

In fact, winds that strong can be called gale force as the definition of a gale is 36 knots, or 66 km/h.

The Valley was to get off easier, but not by much. Gusts and gales of 60 to 80 km/h were to howl along the Valley floor.

Winds were expected to ease this morning.

However, the result is insidious black ice on the roads that can make driving treacherous.

Last night’s forecast cold, snow, rain and wind were to combine to whip the precipitation into an icy glaze covering roads like polish.

“I hope people batten down the hatches for the wind and drive only if they have to in iffy conditions,” said MacDonald.

After this little cold snap — it was to hover around the freezing mark overnight — it’s to warm up today, tomorrow and early in the week, with daytime highs around 6 C and overnight lows of 2 C and 3 C.

That means any precipitation we get over the next few days will fall as rain.

The normal daytime high this time of year is -1 C.

“We’ll be stuck in this mild air mass until winter solstice on Dec. 21 and then it will cool off, so there’s still the chance of some snow for a white Christmas,” said MacDonald.

Winter solstice is the astronomical phenomenon that gives us the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night.