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Snowmegeddan—your wrap on winter’s latest grip on B.C.

The Okanagan and Shuswap saw five centimetres of snow overnight
15515722_web1_Snow-day-Revelstoke13
(Liam Harrap/Revelstoke Review)

Monday night’s snowfall hit many of parts of the province hard, including the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan.

And Environment Canada says the snow that fell overnight Monday shows no sign of letting up Tuesday.

Periods of snow are forecast to continue in all three areas during the day Tuesday, with five to 10 centimetres expected in the Vancouver area Tuesday, four to five centimetres expected in the Victoria area and four more centimetres in the Okanagan. Winds of up to 15 kilometres per hour and a wind chill of -14 C in the morning and -9 C in the afternoon are expected in Kelowna today.

READ MORE: Ice volcanoes erupting on Okanagan Lake

Monday night’s snowfall snarled traffic during rush hour in the Central Okanagan, and caused slowdowns and delays throughout the area.

READ MORE: Snowstorm brings chaos to Lower Mainland roads

In the Shuswap snow started to fall around midnight. Residents there were told to expect between two and four centimetres with temperatures dipping to -19 C overnight.

With the wintry conditions come warnings for highways and Highway 3, from the Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass is expected to be particularly hard hit. Snowfall with total amounts of 15 to 25 cm is expected.

READ MORE: More storms in store for snow-socked Pacific Northwest

While commuters may not be pleased, skiers will be. The Big White ski resort east of Kelowna has seen 18 cm of snow fall within the last 24 hours.

In other parts of B.C., however, the system that brought snow to the province has been quite troublesome.

Thousands of students across much of Vancouver Island and parts of B.C.’s south coast were off school Monday as the region recovered from a winter wallop and prepared for another.

READ MORE: Snow delays in Greater Victoria: traffic, buses, flights impacted

Schools in Greater Victoria, the Gulf Islands and Comox didn’t open following weekend storms that blanketed some parts of the Island with as much as 40 centimetres of snow.

A number of schools on the mainland, including the Sunshine Coast, Surrey, Langley and Mission, were also shuttered, along with the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford and Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo.

READ MORE: Universities, colleges mostly open despite heavy snow in Lower Mainland

People were still digging out Monday from the weekend storms that brought heavy snow to Vancouver Island and howling arctic winds to parts of the south coast.

Send us your photos and video of your snow experiences by clicking the Contact button and the top of the Home page.

_With files from Canadian Press


@Jen_zee
jen.zielinski@bpdigital.ca

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