Advertisement

Alpine heaven as North Shore mountains painted with half-metre of snow

Each of Vancouver's three local mountains have already seen more than 50 centimetres of snow this weekend. Global News

It’s alpine heaven this weekend for skiers and snowboarders in the Lower Mainland, where a big dump of snow has fallen on the North Shore mountains.

A precipitation packed low pressure system has swept across the local mountains cooling and releasing loads of the white stuff in the last 24 hours, according to Global BC meteorologist Peter Quinlan.

Story continues below advertisement

“They’ve already seen a half a metre of snow on the mountains near Vancouver, that includes Mount Seymour as well as Grouse Mountain and Cypress Mountain. They’re all reporting 50-plus centimetres, and quite a bit more on the way for other areas.”

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

That heavy snow actually caused problems for some people looking to hit the slopes on Mount Seymour, where the snow buildup made an area already known for traffic trouble worse.

Story continues below advertisement

Quinlan said the North Shore mountains could see another 20 centimetres of snow by the end of the weekend, before the precipitation turns to rain.

In Whistler, Quinlan said the snow has been more muted, but that some predictive models show up to a metre of snow possible by the end of the weekend.

He said if the area gets more than 33 centimetres, it will break a snowfall record set in 1984.

Outside of the Lower Mainlaind, a snowfall warning remains in effect for the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt, with up to 30 centimetres of snow possible by Sunday evening.

Story continues below advertisement

Province-wide, Quinlan said forecast models show B.C. is in the running to see the highest accumulation of snow worldwide this weekend.

“We’re on par to potentially be one of the places that sees the most snow this weekend, the other areas that we’re keeping an eye on are the southern tip of Greenland and an area in the [Swiss] Alps. But it does look like we’ll be at least one of the places that sees the most snow this weekend.”

Sponsored content

AdChoices