Metro Vancouver skiers and snowboarders just can’t seem to catch a break.
After an unusually late start to the season, all three North Shore ski hills were forced to close on Wednesday due to poor conditions.
Grouse Mountain said it will remain closed on Thursday, while Mount Seymour will be open and Cypress Mountain will have two lifts running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The snow woes come on the heels of a cold snap that saw all three mountains blanketed in white, raising hopes among many that the season had finally kicked off in earnest.
But by Wednesday, mud and rocks were again visible on the slopes, following a parade of atmospheric rivers carrying warm subtropical moisture that raised freezing levels.
“Since Friday we’ve seen a series of storms hit the south coast, bringing a very mild air mass to the province so we’ve seen freezing levels jump up to anywhere from 1,800 to 2,700 metres which is well above the local mountains here,” Environment Canada meteorologist Lisa Erven explained.
“That means as these storms have passed through the province the precipitation is falling as rain as opposed to snow, even in the upper elevations.”
Erven said that while the warm air mass is subsiding, it may yet be a while before fresh snow returns to the slopes.
“The trend for temperatures is favourable in that we are moving back towards seasonal temperatures and seasonal freezing levels. However, we’re moving towards more of a drier trend,” she said.
“Certainly the latter half of the weekend and into early next week the precipitation looks quite minimal if any at all.”
The warm air from the series of storms smashed dozens of temperature records around B.C., including an astonishing reading of 18.4 C recorded in Abbotsford on Tuesday.
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