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Cariboo community receives record amount of snow for Dec. 28 in more than 50 years

After being deprived of snow for Christmas, Mother Nature delivers lots of the white stuff in the days to follow
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A winter storm Dec. 28 had travellers digging their vehicles out from a mound of snow Saturday morning. Angie Mindus photos

Cariboo residents are busy digging out from a winter storm that dumped more than 20 centimetres of snow in the region over a 20-hour period.

As forecasted, temperatures began to rise and snow started to fall in the morning Friday, Dec. 28 and didn’t stop until the wee hours of Saturday, Dec. 29.

Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning Friday which has since ended, but noted 23 centimetres of snow and 1 centimetre of rain fell Dec. 28 in the Williams Lake area.

The amount beat historical records, which indicate the most snow to fall on Dec. 28 previously was 10.6 centimetres in 1988.

Judging by the forecast, however, all that the white stuff might not stick around too long with a high of 3C expected Saturday and a mix of sun and rain.

Sunday and Monday are forecasted to be sunny for the Cariboo with daytime highs of -4C and -6C for the last days of 2018.

Highway 97 in the Cariboo is slushy and wet while sideroads are covered with compact snow and slippery sections Saturday.

Read More: Highway 97 north of Williams Lake re-opens to single lane alternating traffic Friday

A travel advisory was issued for Highway 20 Saturday morning due to freezing rain but has since ended with the warming temperatures.

BC Hydro crews restored power to customers in the Dog Creek Road area Friday night, and are on scene of an outage in the McLeese Lake area impacting 38 customers Saturday morning due to trees down across wires. Power is expected to be restored by 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Another small outage on Cedar Creek Road in the Likely area is impacting less than five customers.

The 100 Mile House area has two small outages; one on Highway 24 in the Sheridan Lake due to wire down and Reed Road area due to a motor vehicle incident. Both outages are impacting less than 10 customers.



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Side roads were still snow-covered Saturday late morning while the main highways were wet.
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After not having any snow for Christmas to play in, children in the Cariboo were thrilled with the recent snowfall.


Angie Mindus

About the Author: Angie Mindus

A desire to travel led me to a full-time photographer position at the Williams Lake Tribune in B.C.’s interior.
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