Rain possible at Thompson Okanagan ski hills as 'Pineapple Express' approaches B.C. - Kelowna News

January has been a volatile weather month and it could be about to take another turn.

The “Pineapple Express” is headed towards the B.C. coast. Its effects could trickle over into the Southern Interior.

“There’s a number of storms that will be making landfall over the next sort of seven days here. With those storms, because they’re approaching from the either the south or the southwest, the are bringing up a rather mild air mass to the province of B.C.,” says Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Lisa Erven.

Warmer-than-normal temperatures are in the forecast. Kelowna, Vernon and Penticton’s highs are expected to reach the 8 C range by the weekend, and in Kamloops could get up to 13 C by Monday. Erven says the warm weather in the valleys will also come with rising freezing levels in the mountains.

“Looking at the freezing level trends for the Kelowna area, we are expecting to see freezing levels to rise to about 2,500 metres sometime on Saturday and continuing through to early next week. And so, if we do get precipitation move through the Interior at that time of elevated freezing levels, then yes, we will see rain to the higher elevations,” she explains.

That could spell trouble for ski hills that had to delay the start of their seasons because of the warm weather in November and December. Big White is the highest ski resort in the Thompson Okanagan, but it tops out at just over 2,300 metres.

Big White senior vice-president Michael J. Ballingall isn’t worried. He expects to have a busy weekend.

“The message we have is stay out of the backcountry, because that is unpredictable in that snowpack. Inside the ropes, inside our controlled recreational boundary, it’ll be like spring skiing,” says Ballingall, who points out the resort probably has one of the highest snowpacks in the province right now.

Ski hills in the coastal mountains could be hit with significant rainfall, but Environment Canada is not predicting heavy precipitation in the Interior.

This month is shaping up to be wetter than normal in Kelowna.

“Typically, in the month of January we see about five to six days of rain. With it being seven, we’re above the normal number of days with rain. And we’ve got some rain in the forecast for the next week, so those numbers will continue bumping up,” said Erven.

She adds that it will be interesting to see the climate statistics at the end of the month, because while it’s been generally milder than normal, the cold snap in the middle of January could skew the average.

“Just a caveat, when we do the month end statistics, that they don’t always tell the whole story.”

Erven says overall, this winter has been more on the mild side because of the impacts of El Nino.