The sky looked ominous at UNBC’s David Douglas Botanical Garden, but just a few faint flakes of snow fell on Saturday afternoon

Prince George, BC – While many parts of the province were hit with an early blast of winter this weekend, Prince George seems to be enjoying its own little pocket of fall paradise…

The heavy clouds that brought a few flakes of snow early Saturday afternoon, quickly cleared away – leaving a distinct chill in the air, but sunshine.  Photo at right shows Taylor Drive just just before 5pm.

That doesn’t mean city residents are being blinded by this autumnal splendour.  No.  They are, admittedly, fully enjoying the continued good fortune carried over from summer.

But Fountain Tire Manager/Owner, Dean Andrews, says the ‘skiff’ of snow that fell back on October 2nd, actually kicked things into high gear for his business a little earlier than usual. (click here, for previous story)

Andrews says snow tire change-overs have been the order of the day, all day, for the past three weeks. 

On Saturday, he arrived to open up at 8am, only to find a lone line of customers waiting at the front door.  "It’s whatever vehicles we can get in, and then some." 

He says his employees have been working 11 and 12-hour days, with lunch brought in, and there’s no end in sight.

The commercial side is feeling the same pressure as it gets down to crunch time, with four big rigs done by mid-afternoon, and another four waiting in the shop yard.

Photo at right shows Spencer Lytle still smiling, despite long hours balancing tires.  

Snow did fall in several parts of the province, including the Peace River Region.  It snowed through the weekend in Fort St. John and the forecast is calling for more of the white stuff straight through until at least Wednesday.

Photo at left shows a DriveBC webcam snapshot of the South Taylor Hill on Highway 97, about 20-kilometres south of the community just before 4pm yesterday afternoon.

While it was sunny near Burns Lake yesterday afternoon, Highway 16 does have snow on the shoulders.  And there was snow in the ditches alongside the Trans Canada on the Peterson Creek Bridge in Kamloops yesterday morning, but it had melted by the afternoon.

It appears we may not suffer the same fate until possibly next weekend.  The forecast from Environment Canada is calling for just the slightest chance of rain or a snow flurries in the Prince George region over the coming week, with highs of 2-degrees.  And a 60-percent chance we’ll see some flurries on Saturday.

While a stop into Northern Hardware found the always-necessary, but much-dreaded snow shovels, it appears – at least for the time being – we should send them to friends and family in Fernie, where the small southeastern community received a dump of more than 10-centimetres yesterday.  (as shown in photo below)