Prince George has been enjoying balmy spring-like weather to start the new year but it sure looks like winter today.
Periods of snow are expected to continue through most of the day with an accumulation of five centimetres. More snow and possibly rain is expected on Tuesday with as much as four centimetres of the white stuff expected.
But after Tuesday, the rest of the week should be relatively warm, dry and relatively sunny.
The predicted high for today is 0 C and the low will be -6 C. Highs will range from 3 C on Tuesday and Wednesday to -4 C by Saturday. The normal high for Prince George for early January is -6 C and the normal low is -14 C.
“It looks like we’re still going to be in this mild flow from the southwest for the next 10 to 14 days,” said Gary Dickinson, a meteorologist for Environment Canada. “It’s going to be generally above seasonal for Prince George and you will see high pressure building in as well. Temperatures for the week should generally be above freezing and mostly sunny skies for the Prince George area.”
The good news for skiers and skaters is mostly clear skies will persist at night throughout the week and it will be cold enough overnight the next few days to make ice for outdoor rinks and snow for the ski trails. Sunshine is predicted from Tuesday-Saturday which will give locals a chance to get out and enjoy outdoor activities around the city. A cooling trend later in the week could drop lows into the minus double digits.
Saturday’s high of 6.4 C was not far off the record of 6.7 C set in 1984. The overnight low remained about a degree above freezing. A blast of warm wind from the Pacific off the southwest coast of B.C. brought unseasonably mild air to the central Interior region, pushing thermometers well above normal. The record low for Jan. 2 was set in 1950 when the mercury plunged to -50 C.
This has been one of the milder winters in recent memory despite predictions months ago of La Nina conditions for the west coast of Canada.
“With La Nina it does mean a generally colder current which would bring up stormier and cooler temperatures and usually that brings more snow to the whole province, but this year it seems the overall weather patterns haven’t agreed with cooler surface ocean temperatures,” said Dickinson.
