Get ready Prince George.
Winter officially arrives next week and it promises to bring bitterly cold temperatures.
How cold? By Tuesday night, just before the winter solstice Wednesday at 1:48 p.m. PT, Environment Canada is predicting the Prince George temperature that night will hit -37 C.
“Starting on Friday we’re going to see a push of Arctic air and we’ll get a bit of snow with that and thereafter that we’re in the deep freeze right through Wednesday,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Trevor Smith.
“It looks like the coldest days will be Monday through Wednesday.”
Lows are expected to reach the minus-30s for at least Monday (-33 C) and Tuesday (-37 C) nights and the daytime temperatures won’t get much better. Highs will range from -17 to -19 C Saturday and Sunday, then drop to -20 C Monday, -27 C Tuesday and -30 C on Wednesday, the shortest day of the year.
If you want to partake in any outdoor activities, today and Friday will be a lot more tolerable by comparison. We’re heading for a high of -8 C today and -7 C on Friday, but the warmest part of the day on Friday will be early in the morning. Periods of snow are expected all day and the mercury will dip to -22 C by late Friday.
Clear skies Saturday and Sunday will bring lower temperatures at night down to -25 C and -27 C.
The good news is we’re not likely in for a repeat of the bone-chilling temperatures we had right after Christmas last year when there five days in the mid -30s leading into the new year.
The long-range model for next week calls for equal high and lows of -17 C on Thursday and -8 C on Friday , rising to -2/-4 on Christmas Eve, -3/-4 on Christmas Day and -2/-3 on Boxing Day.
The average high/low for this time of year is -2/-12 C
Smith said a moist Pacific air mass will start to push out the cold air on Wednesday and that will bring more snow and perhaps even freezing rain.
“Wednesday to Friday potentially are really messy looking, snow to freezing rain, maybe even to rain at some point,” said Smith. “It looks like we’re really going to warm up rapidly in that time frame and as far as travel and the roads that’s kind of the problem time period.”
Last year’s low on Dec. 26 at Prince George Airport was -41 C and the high only reached -23 C. The coldest day ever in December for Prince George happened in 1927 when it hit -46.7 C.
“Throughout my career I’ve always said -40 is kind of the standard for cold in Prince George,” said Smith. “That’s legit cold. I’ve been forecasting for 30 years so I know how cold it used to get.”
Last month was the seventh coldest November on record, averaging -7.3 C at the airport. The normal average for November is -2.5 C. We received 45 millimetres of precipitation, slightly below the 55 mm average. Smith said this December will almost certainly be colder than average.
