Winter has arrived in the Okanagan, and experts say it’s not going away anytime soon.
In mid-November, Environment Canada forecast that this winter will be “colder than usual” in the region.
It’s a prediction that has so far proved correct as Christmas draws ever closer.
And with daytime temperatures hitting lows of -16C in some parts of the Okanagan, Environment Canada has issued extreme winter warnings.
But last week’s temperatures come as no surprise to forecaster Brian Proctor, even though the numbers have shaken the region’s all-time averages.
“I’m really not (surprised) it honestly depends a lot on what’s happening in the atmosphere,” he said. “When we saw the November flow in the southwest and west with the atmospheric flows, we saw all this warm air backing up into the southern interior.”
Proctor also noted that these westerly currents tend to create conditions that support heavy snowfall in the southern part of the province as well as the cooler temperatures the region is currently experiencing.
The constant sub-zero temperatures in the Okanagan will remain – at least for the duration of the “first half of winter”, according to Proctor.
“Normally we could see some changes in February, but at this point it looks like it will be colder than usual in the first half of winter, so late December and into January.”
On December 20 last year, Kelowna recorded a temperature of over 10 C. Fast forward a year and the city is bordering on what would qualify as extremely cold.
“What’s happening now is we’re getting this pattern that’s really bringing this cold out of the Northwest Territories and Alaska down to BC,” Proctor said.
Extreme Winter updates are issued on a case-by-case basis depending on where in the country alerts are issued. What people are used to in a particular region during winter plays a role in whether Environment Canada will label temperatures as “extreme”.
“We considered -10 C in the Vancouver or Victoria area to be absolutely extreme,” Proctor explained. “But if you look at what we might typically line up for areas like the Okanagan Valley, it would be very different.”
The coldest Christmas Day in Penticton history was 1948 when the town recorded a temperature of -17°C.
Still, anything hovering around -15C in the Okanagan is something Proctor would consider significant.
CONTINUE READING: This winter in the Okanagan is the hardest to predict, according to meteorologists
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