Photo: CTV News

UPDATE 5:02 p.m.

DriveBC is now reporting that Highway 1 near Golden will remain closed until the temperature drops.

The risk of an avalanche like the one that swept a vehicle from the road Sunday afternoon remains high so the highway will remain closed until the temperature drops and the hazard decreases, likely at least 8 p.m. Sunday night.

UPDATE 4:20 p.m.

DriveBC now says avalanche control work near where a vehicle was swept from the road has now been completed but there are reports of congestion due to earlier traffic backups in that area.

DriveBC is also reporting that  Highway 1 east of Golden, between Park Bridge and Golden Donald Upper Rd, is now closed due to high avalanche risk.

ORIGINAL 2:16 p.m.

A small naturally occurring avalanche swept a vehicle right off the highway near Revelstoke Sunday afternoon.

The incident happened on Highway 1, 46 km east of Revelstoke just before 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

CTV News is reporting eyewitnesses report watching the avalanche swept the car off the road.  Rob Thiessen says, "there was a car on the left side of the road that got swept up and actually got five to six feet up on the embankment," he said.

"There was a driver, who apparently is safe and okay, but there was a scare there because he almost got thrown off the side of the highway if the car went 10 feet up the embankment."

BC's Ministry of Transportation was doing avalanche control work in the area but say their work had no bearing on this incident.

"Warming afternoons create increased avalanche risk at this time of year.  The ministry continually monitors conditions and is actively conducting controls across the service area by ministry avalanche technicians," said spokesperson Sukhi Tomana.

The highway has since been cleared.

-with files from CTV News