As temperatures are forecasted to fall rapidly, Environment Canada has a Flash Freeze warning for Quesnel and Williams Lake.
“We don’t put them out all that often.” said Meteorologist Doug Lundquist, “What’s happening is that the Arctic Front is going to move through so quickly, and we had so much snow, so much melting that there could be water around on roads, sidewalks, and highways, and it’s going to freeze pretty quickly.”
The Flash Freeze Warning stated scattered showers and mile temperatures today (January 17) will change to showers or flurries as the front arrives in the region.
“Once the front gets here it would more likely be just snow flurries,” Lundquist said, “but that’s when that really quick freeze is going to happen. Probably getting down to Williams Lake sometime in the evening near suppertime and plus or minus a couple of hours to Quesnel.”
Lundquist added that this is just a temporary return to the Arctic Air, we’re expecting lows tonight of minus 12 and a high tomorrow of minus 6 then starting to warm up on Wednesday with snow coming and returning to above zero by Thursday.
“It’s very typical to swing back and forth between Arctic Air and Pacific Air throughout the winter, but usually the Arctic Air stays a little longer which is about a week. This cold snap is 24 to 48 hours in duration,” Lundquist noted.