Whistler blows away November snowfall record

The unrelenting series of storms pounding the West Coast has brought good news for skiers, dumping a record snowfall on at least one coastal ski resort.

On Thursday, the Whistler-Blackcomb resort broke its previous record for all of November when it received 418 centimetres of snow, with 11 days still left to go in the month.

'We're only 87 centimetres from reaching the half-way point of our annual average.' Anton Horvath, Whistler Mountain's weather forecaster

"This is an unprecedented start to the season," said Anton Horvath, Whistler Mountain's weather forecaster, who is expecting another 65 to 95 centimetres over the weekend

The previous record for the entire month was set in 2006 at 416 centimetres, based on snowfall records dating back to 1979.

The annual average snowfall at Whistler-Blackcomb is just over 10 metres, said Horvath.

"The fact that we're only 87 centimetres from reaching the half-way point of our annual average snowfall shows how incredible the start of this season really is," said Horvath.

The snow is also good news for organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics, who are counting on the resort to have enough snow to host the Alpine ski events for the Games in February.

Whistler is not the only ski resort benefiting from the cool, wet storms that have lowered the normal freezing elevation in the mountains by about 700 metres, turning precipitation that might have been rain into snow.

Last weekend, several B.C. ski resorts opened up to two weeks early for the season, including those on the North Shore of Vancouver and others in the Southern Interior.

Rain for lower elevations

But at lower elevations, all the precipitation has been falling as rain, raising river levels and flooding at least one Vancouver Island town earlier this week,

Perhaps surprisingly, the amount of rain falling is only slightly above normal in a few areas.

On the Northern tip of Vancouver Island, Port Hardy has already received more than 300 mm of rain this month, just above the seasonal normal of 284 mm.

Meanwhile, normally rainy Tofino has received only 360 mm of rain, well below the seasonal average of 471 mm for this time in November.