After a big blast of snow that hit the Central Okanagan, with up to 14 centimetres of snow and parts of the Similkameen receiving up to 26 centimetres, drier days have returned to finish off the week.
Kelowna recorded the second biggest dump of snow the city has seen so far this winter. It was also a few centimetres shy of being record breaking.
Five centimetres of snow fell on January 22, when the record snowfall for that date was 8.9 centimetres from 1931.
The heavy snowfall, which brought back-breaking shoveling duties to every part of the valley, caused the warm, moist air that moved in early Thursday to quickly saturate and form what’s called advection fog.
The moisture in the air will be further built up by temperatures climbing above the freezing mark Thursday afternoon. The day started out at around -4 C, with visibility down to 400 metres at times.
Fog is expected to fizzle during the day, but redevelop into early Friday morning and linger into the day once again.
A disturbance rippling through brings with it a risk of a few flurries and showers late Thursday and into early Friday, before skies start to clear to bring back some sunshine by mid-Friday.
The sunny breaks will be short-lived, though, as the next wave of clouds slides in Friday afternoon with a slight chance of late-day sprinkles, as thermometers climb a few degrees above freezing.
An upper ridge building over the area will bring back some morning valley cloud and fog early Saturday, though that will likely fizzle out into some sunshine during the day with an afternoon high around 4 degrees.
A cold front sweeping through the valley early Sunday will likely draw in some showers and mountain snow, with gusty northwest winds picking up. That will help briefly mix warm air to around 5 degrees or so.
The effects of the front will really be felt Monday morning, with temperatures swinging down to around -6 degrees and wind chills approaching minus double digits as you’re heading out in the morning.
After some sunshine kicks off the final week of January, clouds are expected to slide in with a chance of precipitation by mid-week, as daytime highs continue to climb a degree or so above freezing.
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