WATCH: A wintry blast in parts of BC is causing headaches for holiday travellers this weekend. Whether people were trying to catch a flight or drive to their destination, they were going nowhere fast. Kimberly Davidson reports.
A strong winter storm making its way across British Columbia has caused problems in the interior, but is joy to skiiers in the Metro Vancouver area.
In the Columbia-Shuswap district, Highway 1 was closed in both directions from Revelstoke to Craigellachie due to a serious accident that took two lives. It was reopened late Saturday night, and traffic was stopped at Sicamous and Revelstoke the entire afternoon and evening, stranding hundreds of people.
READ MORE: Revelstoke working to accommodate hundreds of stranded travellers
At Kelowna International Airport, flights were delayed all day due to poor visibility and a slippery runway.
READ MORE: Okanagan braces for the cold and snow
But in Vancouver, the storm meant local ski hills were blanketed with nearly a foot of snow. Mount Seymour’s ski and snowboard school opened for the first time all year, and it’s hoped more areas will open up in the coming days.
“We’ve got a lot of very patient skiiers that are checking with us all the time..they’re as keen as we are to get rolling, and I think this is it,” said Mt. Seymour Resorts president Eddie Wood.
“We’ve had some very dry weather, and we’ve had some warm weather as well. But with this change, this is exactly the recipe we’ve been waiting for.”
All the snow hitting B.C. is likely to stick for many days to come. Environment Canada is warning arctic air is expected to move into the Southern Interior starting Sunday. Officials say that temperatures could be at least 10 degrees below seasonal averages for several days.
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