There are still a few days left in the month, but this February will go down as one of the coldest in history in both Williams Lake and Quesnel.
Armel Castellan, a Meteorologist with Environment Canada, says Williams Lake was well ahead of that pace as of February 17th…
“Up until that point Williams Lake had seen an average temperature of -17.7. The normal average is -4.1 so almost 14 degrees colder during that stretch, which is certainly the coldest February on record for Williams Lake.”
Castellan says it has since dropped to -15.6 as an average but that is still on pace to be one of the coldest February’s, if not the coldest, ever.
Quesnel’s records go back further to the late 1800’s, but Castellan says Quesnel is also on pace to be one of the coldest on record…
“-15.8 is average in Quesnel this year. The normal average for Quesnel in February is -3.6, so we’re talking again upwards of 11 degrees colder than normal. I suspect that that will be very close to the top coldest February on record.”
Castellan says the all-time record is an average of -19.5 in 1936.
He says the normal daytime high for this time of year plus 3, while the normal low is just -7.
Castellan says we’re not expected to see temperatures north of zero for at least a couple of weeks.