Stormy weather heading toward Southern BC Interior today

A weather system expected to track across the Southern BC Interior today has prompted warnings from Environment Canada. The weather office has issued a thunderstorm watch today, June 11, for the Shuswap and wind warnings for the Nicola region including the Coquihalla and Okanagan Connector highways. A Pacific frontal system is moving through southern BC bringing with it a strong southwest to west wind that will impact communities throughout the region. The weather conditions are favourable for the development of dangerous thunderstorms in the Shuswap, including Salmon Arm, capable of producing damaging winds, large hail and torrential rainfall, the weather watch issued by Environment Canada said. In the Nicola region this afternoon, including the Coquihalla and Okanagan Connector, a 70 km/h wind with gusts up to 90 km/h are expected. The wind should die down this evening. "High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break," the watch said. "Utility outages may occur. Motorists, especially in high profile vehicles, may expect hazardous driving conditions on highways subject to strong cross winds." For the latest on the weather warnings check out Environment Canada’s web page here. https://weather.gc.ca/index_e.html?layers=alert For the latest on highway conditions go to DriveBC here. http://www.drivebc.ca To contact a reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander mailto:halexander@infonews.ca  or call 250-309-5343 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tip@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 .