Update 4 p.m: Winter storm conditions are no longer expected.
Environment Canada says a winter storm warning is no longer in effect.
BC Highway Alerts remain in place for:
- Coquihalla Highway – Hope to Merritt
- Coquihalla Highway – Merritt to Kamloops
- Okanagan Connector – Merritt to Kelowna
“Heavy bands of snow will develop later today as a low-pressure system from the coast clashes with a cold front in the interior,” Environment Canada said.
“This interaction will produce localized heavy snowfall with rapid accumulations and sudden reduction in visibilities.”
Original Post: More than 3,000 people in the South Cariboo are without power as a result of heavy snowfall Tuesday morning.
“Trees are being forced onto power lines in many locations, and that is due to the snow and the snow load being quite heavy,” BC Hydro spokesperson Bob Gammer said.
“It is a full circuit outage so all the way from the substation to where that circuit travels.”
The outage currently affects 3,340 customers and several crews are working on the outage trying to restore power as quickly as possible Gamer said.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have an estimated time for restoration.”
Hazardous Conditions Expected
A winter storm warning is in effect for 100 Mile House and the Chilcotin.
Environment Canada says that 30 cm of heavy snow is reported Tuesday morning and up to 15 cm of additional snow is expected throughout the day.
“We found the modified Arctic front stalled over that region, and we’ve had two low-pressure systems now scrape by the area and it’s just been snowing nonstop for the last 36 hours or so,” meteorologist Matt MacDonald said.
Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow.
“Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow,” the national weather agency warns.
MacDonald says once the snow tapers off this afternoon the rest of the week should see sunshine with highs getting up to 4 or 5 degrees. The overnight temperatures, however, he said will be below zero and motorists should be on the lookout for black ice when hitting the roads early in the morning.
(With files from Patt Matthews)