White Christmas possible after snow blankets valley
After the darkest day comes a lot of light in the run-up to Christmas in Kelowna, Environment Canada promises.
Clearing skies are forecast for Tuesday with full sun Wednesday and Christmas Eve. But with highs of only –3 C, the snow that fell Monday could remain for a White Christmas.
Accumulations of up to 10 centimetres were expected across most of greater Kelowna after rain turned to snow around mid-morning. The snow made driving challenging in some areas, police said, and a power outage left much of Rutland and Black Mountain without electricity for several hours.
The driver of a grey pickup lost control and the truck stuck a power pole along Glenmore Road near Slater Drive. The driver was not injured, but Glenmore Road was closed for a time.
FortisBC needed several hours to restore full power. A shorter power outage was also reported in East Kelowna.
No flight delays were reported at the Kelowna airport, with YLW staff tweeting happily “Snow time is go time!”
The winter solstice — the day with the shortest time between sunrise and sunset — was on Monday in the northern hemisphere. If the sun had been visible, it would have transited across the sky for eight hours, five minutes, and 29 seconds.
Days get longer again beginning today, with six seconds more daylight. New Year’s Day will have almost six minutes more sunshine than Monday had.