Warm weather causing problems for ski hills in Thompson-Okanagan | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Warm weather causing problems for ski hills in Thompson-Okanagan

A view of the village at SilverStar Mountain Resort near Vernon, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
Image Credit: Big White Ski Resort

The abnormally warm weather in the Thompson-Okanagan region is putting a halt to many people's favourite winter activities.

Warmer temperatures have led Harper Mountain near Kamloops to "pause operations" until the weekend, according to a social media post from the official page yesterday, Jan 30. 

Harper said grooming has been impossible with the wet snow. The ski hill therefore has no option but to close its doors until temperatures drop again at the weekend.

At Sun Peaks Resort, temperatures today reached 5 Celsius and the resort hasn't seen snow in two days. There's also chance of rain in the forecast.

Unexpected warm weather has also meant that Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna had to cancel the BC Snowboard Provincial Series scheduled to begin on Feb 2.

READ MORE: 6 things you may not know about Big White on the resort's 60th anniversary

The majority of the resort's lifts remain open, although temperatures are teetering around zero with the possibility of rain today. 

This morning, Jan. 31, SilverStar Mountain Resort released a statement saying it expects operations to be impacted in the coming days. The resort said it will continue to monitor conditions and will post updates to its website. 

SilverStar Resort hasn't received any snow in the past two day and with the risk of rain, conditions don't look like they'll be improving. 

READ MORE: Are rising prices making Okanagan skiing unaffordable?

"We are still in the midst of a mild flow with intermittent showers, but a change is ahead this weekend," SilverStar stated on its website. "Freezing levels will return to near village levels at the end of the work week."

Apex Mountain near Penticton also had zero centimetres of snow in the last 48 hours and 10 of the mountain's 80 trails are closed.

— The cutline on the photo was corrected to say the image is of SilverStar Mountain Resort not Big White Ski Resort.


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