Southern Interior travel alerts upgraded to warnings

The storm system that brought snow and travel alerts to the Southern Interior yesterday, Feb. 27, continues today with Environment Canada issuing winter storm warnings for mountain passes. Up to 40 cm of snow could fall on the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt, Highway 1 from Rogers Pass to Eagle Pass and Highway 3 from the Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass through to Thursday morning. As much as 25 cm of snow could fall along Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton. “A strong Pacific frontal system is pushing through the BC interior,” the warning says. “Snowfall associated with the system will continue into Thursday. In addition, gusty southwest winds will develop today and persist into Thursday.” Snow fell in the valley bottoms overnight but should start melting later today as temperatures in Kamloops are forecast to rise to 9 Celsius today and 12 C Thursday. There is a 40-60% chance of showers or flurries through to Thursday morning with an overnight low tonight of 2 C in Kamloops. High temperatures in the Okanagan should be 7-8 C today with flurries or rain showers. The forecast is for an overnight low of 3 C and a high of 5 C on Thursday and drier. To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro mailto:rmunro@infonews.ca  or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit http://tips@infonews.ca photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .