{"id":329099,"date":"2025-12-06T22:45:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T22:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329099\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T22:45:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T22:45:38","slug":"rain-snow-to-fall-as-okanagan-ends-year-in-a-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329099\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain, snow to fall as Okanagan ends year in a drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Snow fell across the Okanagan Friday, offering an early taste of what\u2019s ahead as winter<\/a> approaches.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Environment Canada meteorologist Ken Dosanjh said areas in the Central Okanagan could see measurable accumulation before temperatures shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could see snow<\/a> up to five centimetres Friday around West Kelowna<\/a> and Peachland. Then after that, we\u2019re going to see freezing levels rise up a bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those warmer temperatures will quickly turn the snow to rain. Dosanjh added that more wet weather is on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we continue into the weekend, we\u2019re going to see potential rain coming through, more so later into the week, like Sunday and Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But even with snow returning to the forecast, it won\u2019t be enough to ease the region\u2019s ongoing drought.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you think about it in terms of a budget or a bank account, we\u2019ve had a few years in a row where the inputs have been lower than normal and we\u2019ve still been withdrawing from it,\u201d said Sandra Schira with the Okanagan Basin Water Board. \u201cAnd so it doesn\u2019t take one good paycheque to put it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Okanagan has been stuck in drought conditions since 2023, and experts say a substantial amount of winter moisture is needed to rebuild a healthy snowpack.<\/p>\n

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Schira said it\u2019s too early to predict how this winter will shape up, but emphasized what the region needs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re going to want an above-average snowpack that is nice and healthy and melts out slowly in the spring. If we have a big accumulation of snow and it melts early, all that water is going to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environment Canada is projecting a La Nina year, which typically brings cooler and wetter weather. Dosanjh said that aligns with early modelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least looking into next year, we\u2019re showing cooler-than-normal signal potential, but precipitation climate models are not able to make reliable predictions at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the drought persists, Schira says residents, and even city officials, will need to start thinking more seriously about long-term water conservation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Snow fell across the Okanagan Friday, offering an early taste of what\u2019s ahead as winter approaches. Environment Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66,11738,1133,44512,8864],"class_list":{"0":"post-329099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-snow","13":"tag-weather","14":"tag-west-kelowna","15":"tag-winter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}