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If you stood on Munson Mountain or really anywhere on the East Bench late yesterday afternoon and looked west, you could see the clouds moving in over the mountains. Snow had been forecast for Monday, and this was the pre-storm buildup.
By noon today, the Environment Canada call for five to 10 centimetres seemed right on the money. And in a winter where snow had thus far been a rarity, it's been quite the event. Traffic is light and the predominant activity involves shovels and plows.
It keeps on coming, too. Even as the temperature grows increasingly milder - at 12:45 pm, the thermometer read 2°C - the snow hasn't yet changed to rain.
But it will. The low tonight will be 1°C. The high tomorrow will be 5°C.
On the Vancouver Avenue hill this morning, John Olfert was admirably clearing a huge chunk of steep sidewalk with his grandson Jad Dawn, and they were having fun doing it.
Just a couple blocks over on Vancouver Place, a few homes from the KVR Trail entrance, David Staysko, Tammy Lomin and at least a couple other residents were busy making the sidewalks safe for pedestrians.
Out on the KVR, the view towards downtown Penticton was, to put in mildly, obscure. The marina was visible, but precious little else.
Up on Lower Bench Road, Brody Burlingame ditched the shovel for a snowblower, but the snow kept falling, making his job more difficult.
Down at Rotary Park, a pair of City of Penticton tractors with attached blowers carved long swaths into the white ground.
Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, then the temperature will drop mid-week to some of the lowest we've seen this winter. Environment Canada calls for highs near -4°C and lows near -8°C, with a good chance of flurries, for the weekend.