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(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

A weather system moving into the Thompson and Okanagan regions today could bring two to four centimetres of snow by the time it’s finished early tomorrow morning, Nov. 19.

“Because we’ve got low freezing levels in place, precipitation is likely to show up in the form of snow for many places, although we could see brief switches over to a rain-snow mix or a rain mix this afternoon then freezing levels lower tonight,” Environment Canada meteorologist Lisa Erven told iNFOnews.ca.

“It’s a bit of a tricky forecast. Some communities might actually see more rain than snow and others might see more snow than rain.”

The good news is that snow doesn’t immediately turn to water that will add to flooding woes of places like Merritt and Princeton.

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“Snow makes tricky driving conditions out there for anybody who is out on the roads, whether it’s in town or moving between communities,” Erven cautioned. “It’s just really important to drive for the conditions, check Dive B.C.’s website and carry an emergency kit, just in case you get stuck.”

The bad news is, there’s a bit of a warming trend coming into the weekend with highs in the 5 Celsius to 6 C range, so the snow will likely melt.

It’s hard to say how snow amounts translates into water because it can be at different densities but, Erven said, the general rule of thumb is one centimetre of snow is about equivalent to one millimetre of rain.

The system will dump from five to 15 cm in various areas of the flooded Lower Mainland.

On the plus side, once the system moves through Friday morning, it will be followed by dryer weather with some sunshine likely.

Wetter weather is likely to return again early next week.

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