A strong ridge of high pressure from the Pacific will move into the Cariboo starting Thursday (March 14) continuing into the weekend.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Derrick Lee said by Sunday the temperature could reach 18 degrees Celsius making it 9 to 11 degrees above normal.
He noted it’s abnormal to see these temperatures in March making it likely to tie or break some records.
“There are a lot of sunny skies in the forecast along with temperatures in the high teens. Right now we have a chance of seeing a high up to 18 degrees Celsius in the Cariboo region by Sunday. Records could be broken or tied beginning anytime from Friday into Sunday with Sunday being our warmest day. It’s likely that Williams Lake has the possibility of breaking daily records everyday from Friday into Sunday, and for Quesnel we’re looking at the current forecasted temperatures to break a record on Sunday.”
The all time March record for temperatures in Quesnel was set back in 1902 on March 12th when it was 23.3 degrees and in Williams Lake it was 18.9 on March 29th in 1994.
Lee added that temperatures will likely fall back to more seasonal trends on Tuesday or Wednesday with a good shift in the weather pattern bringing back more cloud and more precipitation to the Region.
“It does look generally warm during the day but the night time temperatures will be quite cool, near freezing. We do have lows of minus 1 in the forecast at the same time making morning temperatures a little chilly to start the day.”