Pineapple Express follows Polar Express

[Okanagan]

Potent combination of weather sequence here.  After 10 days of heavy rain we suddenly had a full week of unusual cold, 30 below inland on bare ground, and down in the teens on the coast.  That was followed by more heavy rain on the lowland coast with corresponding deep snow at higher elevations and inland.  Now suddenly we have warm weather and heavy tropical style rain.

The result is devastating.  Inland the ground is deeply frozen under heavy snow on which it is raining.  Sooner or later it will thaw but meanwhile it sets up incredible icing conditions, turning any compact snow into a layer of glaze ice with water on it.  Many roads, even highways, were compact snow yesterday and are sheets of wet ice today.  Pic below is of an unpaved secondary highway yesterday afternoon in a dry area that gets little snow or rain. 




Ten miles from this pic the snow is knee deep.  If it freezes in this state, the crust will be killer to big game in areas which have deep snow.

Here on the coast, the early wet made for lots of seeps and trickles which turned into stupendous walls of ice on all of the steep country, huge frozen waterfalls and great walls of cliff all covered in a thick layer of ice.  All of that is now melting in torrential rain plus melting the deep snow above on the same mountains.  Ski resorts are lamenting rain on the early snow. 

Yesterday afternoon on my way back from a mule deer hunt I aborted due to weather, the number and size of waterfalls bashing and exploding in spray down the vertical mountains near Hope were the biggest I've seen.  Two of them were slopping gravel and rock laden splash across the eastbound lanes of the Trans-Canada freeway.  A crew just arriving was shutting down the lane next to the bottom of the cliff.  Sure enough, they closed both lanes of the eastbound highway, unsure when it will reopen.  Local rivers are at flood warning.  The rain has slowed at the moment here but more is on the way.

[HaMeR]

HOLEE SMOKES!!!!!!!!!!! That is just nasty!!!!! Stay safe up there Ok!!

[HuntnCarve]

It's going to be a long Winter I'm afraid.  You be careful out there Clyde.

Dave

[FOsteology]

Dangerous conditions, no doubt.

[FinsnFur]

That reminds me of skitching behind the UPS truck lol

Sent from my SCH-R890 using Tapatalk

[Hawks Feather]

They had a piece on the 6:00 p.m. news about the snow in the east and the rain/snow in the west.  I guess some days it pays to live in the middle.

Jerry

[Dale]

well now that just sucks... hope the game makes out ok with the icing...