Historic drought means there's almost no snow for ski hills in B.C.'s Interior

Despite the fact it's late November in Smithers, B.C., located about 1,150 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, the picturesque alpine town has no snow on the ground.

Typically, cooler temperatures and precipitation would mean white stuff on the ground by now — enough, says resident Lex Rei-Jones, that people would be shovelling sidewalks, and plow trucks would be scraping the streets.