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Okanagan digs out after a snowstorm

Residents woke up Friday to snow blanketing the region and ice coating the roads
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Josh Bird, of Swan Lake Motors, gets to work Friday morning shovelling off the vehicles in their lot. Last year the first time they had to shovel snow was Dec. 2. (Lisa VanderVelde/Morning Star)

Halloween was barely over and Okanagan residents were reaching for the snow shovels.

A storm passed through the region Thursday, with the amount of white stuff varying from community to community and in some cases, neighbourhoods.

“This was two to three weeks ahead of schedule,” said Lisa West, Environment Canada meteorologist, of an Arctic cold front crossing the province.

At the Kalamalka Lake station on Highway 97, 21 centimetres of snow were recorded while there were 19 centimetres in Kelowna.

The 30-year average for November is 26.5 centimetres while 29.2 centimetres of snow fell in the Vernon area Nov. 7, 1995.

“This event (Thursday) is quite large but not quite record breaking,” said West.

Conditions are expected to improve over the next few days but temperatures will remain cool, particularly overnight.

West is reminding residents to be prepared now that winter is here.

“If you haven’t got your snow tires on yet, you will want to do so,” she said.