There was unusually mild weather in Quesnel and Williams Lake on Remembrance Day.
In fact, it was like we’ve never felt before on November 11.
Terry Lang is a Meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“”For Quesnel, the old record of 16.7 was broken, and that’s from 1981, with a new record of 18.8. The Quesnel records are quite long, they go back to 1893. And for Williams Lake, they got to 15.5, and that breaks the old record of 13.2, also from 1981, and the records go back to 1960 there.”
Lang says it is unlikely that either city sets a record throughout the rest of the week, however.
“Today’s record for Quesnel, 17.2 set in 1928, and for Williams Lake 14.8 set in 1990 so certainly those temperatures are getting close there. I think for tomorrow would be a long shot, just because the record for the 13th for Quesnel is really out there, it’s 24.4 set in 1899. I don’t know what happened on that particular day but that’s pretty warm. Right now (12 pm), you’re sitting only around 7 degrees and a forecast high of only 9. And Williams Lake is only sitting at 4, with a forecast high of 9 as well.”
To put these temperatures into perspective, Lang says they were well over average for this time of year.
“Average daytime highs of plus 2, plus 3 with overnight lows around -5, so these record setting temperatures that we’re seeing are really phenomenally above average, keeping in mind that those average temperatures are over 30 years and includes everything from the coldest colds and the warmest warms.”
Lang says looking ahead to the weekend temperatures could get warm again, as she says they’re expecting another sort of resurgence of the atmospheric river that’s hitting the coast mountains.
She says when that happens the mild air comes in, gets squeezed out over the coast mountains and then comes down warmer and drier on the other side.
