Will South Coast ski season be hurt by record-warm November?

Environment Canada says the record-breaking warmth of early Novemberon the South Coast has melted away some of the snow that fell earlier this fall but it's too soon to tell what impact that will have on the ski season.

David Jones, a meteorologist with Environment Canada,says a combination of wet weather, melting snow and saturated ground is causing flooding on Vancouver Island and parts of HoweSound.

He calledthis November "an extraordinary month" for record-breaking temperatures so far. Last Tuesday, temperatures reached 22.4 C in Abbotsford which is warmer than it was during some weeks this summer.

Even Prince George, Quesnel and Williams Lake saw temperatures rise up to 20 C that day because of a Pineapple Express system that swept across the coast, bringing warm, wet weather with it.

And Jonessaysit's still about 5 C warmer than normalfor the season.

As a self-described skier, Jones sayshe's been keeping an eye on the snowpack.

"I watched it pile up through late October, and then the warm weather hit," he said. "The snow pack at higher elevations has diminished quite a bit."

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Ski resorts prepare for winter

But Jones saysit's too early to tell what kind of ski season is in store for the North Shore, Whistlerand Vancouver Island mountains meteorologists can only accurately predict weather seven to 10 days in advance.

Andhe says colder weather is headed this way in the next few days, including a lower freezing level on the mountains.

"A change is upon us, there's no doubt about that," he said.

Over at Grouse Mountain, staff are moving ahead to prepare for a regular ski season.

"We haven't given up on winter," said Grouse Mountain spokeswoman Julia Grant."We'll be open as soon as mother nature lets us."

Last year around this time,Whistler, Grouse and Cypress all opened early for ski season.

Grant saysthe resort hasn't set an opening date yet, but staff can ramp up operations quickly and have the slopes covered in snow in three days weather permitting.

With files from BrennaRose