It will be a December to remember when it comes to the mild temperatures in Quesnel and Williams Lake.
Derek Lee, a Meteorologist with Environment Canada, says we haven’t seen anything like it, especially in the Lake City.
“For Quesnel we had an average of 6.6 degrees warmer than normal, and it ranked as the third warmest December on record going all the way back to 1898. And for Williams Lake we had an average warm anomaly of 6.9 degrees, making it the warmest December ever on record going all the way back to 1961.”
Lee says it was the exact opposite in December of 2022.
“For December 2022 it was definitely colder than normal. For Quesnel it was actually -6.7 degrees colder than normal and for Williams Lake it was -4.3 colder than normal.”
Lee says there were a lot of new daily records set in December for both Quesnel and Williams Lake, especially for overnight when the temperatures were actually 10 to 15 degrees above normal.
He says December was a little drier than normal as well.
“In terms of precipitation we did see some flurries here and there, but we saw probably rain more often in the month because it was so warm. Overall we got around 20 to 30 millimetres in water equivalent in the Cariboo, and the normal should have been closest to 40 millimetres. It trended a bit drier, but it doesn’t really rank anywhere in the top five driest Decembers on record though.”
Looking ahead this year, Lee says actual winter weather is on the way.
“We do have the cold returning on the weekend, and it’s going to get even colder as we move into mid-week next week, so we can anticipate the daytime temperatures to be back into the negative teens and the nighttime temperatures maybe plummeting to even -25 mid-week next week.”
Lee says we could also see some snow by early next week.
