Snow hit Kelowna's Joe Rich area hard overnight

Photo: Stephanie Appel

A Joe Rich resident recorded almost a foot of snowfall Friday morning.

Snow fell heavily in some parts of the Valley Thursday night, and more is expected through the weekend.

While only about three centimetres of snow was recorded at the UBC Okanagan weather station through the evening, Joe Rich got hammered with about 15 cm of the white stuff, bringing the recent snowfall this week to about 30 cm. 

“Twelve inches of snow up in Joe Rich today, folks. Too bad we can't get a plow truck,” Stephanie Appel told Castanet.

The snow has been a welcome change for local ski resorts. This week's dumps have turned around the slow start to the season.

Those hitting the slopes at Big White woke to 12 cm of fresh snow Friday morning, bringing the week's snowfall to 47 cm. The alpine snow base now sits at 109 cm and as a result, Big White has opened 50 runs. The resort plans to open its Alpine T-Bar Saturday.

The alpine base at Silver Star Mountain Resort is now 115 cm, after eight cm fell overnight, while five centimetres of new snow brought Revelstoke Mountain Resort's base to 124 cm.

To the south, Apex Mountain Resort, which opened last weekend, has an 80 cm base, with five cm of fresh snow overnight.

The storms are expected to taper off through the weekend though, with light flurries forecast through Saturday in Kelowna.