Here comes winter with a blast of cooler temperatures
By Boundary Sentinel
It’s sure beginning to look a lot like winters of old as a cold Arctic air mass blanketed the region during parts of December said Ron LakemanWeather Forecaster Southeast Fire Centre in the monthly synopsis.
Lakeman said December 2016 was colder and drier than an average final month on the calendar.
“The mean monthly temperature was 1.8 degrees colder than normal,” he said in the release.
“The monthly snowfall was actually greater than normal but when combined with the minor rainfall the total amount of precipitation was 68 percent of normal.”
Lakeman said the initial few days of the month were relatively mild with Pacific disturbances producing light mixed precipitation at times.
“The only rain during the month (total 1.0 millimetre) fell on the December 2 and the night of December 3.
However, that all changes for residents of the West Kootenay Boundary region as a modified Arctic air mass seeped across southern BC, bringing colder temperatures for a two-week stretch between December 5th and the 19th.
“The coldest temperature during the month (and also a new record minimum temperature for the date) was -15.8 degrees during the early morning of December17th,” Lakeman said.
“Light snow was also recorded at times during this period as weak Pacific disturbances pushed over the sub-freezing air mass.”
Lakeman said winter really hit the region, with substantial amounts of snow registered during the night of December 18th.
The systems continued through the night of December 26th as a series of more significant Pacific systems tracked across southern BC.
The heaviest amount of snow was 21.0 centimetres during the night of December 26th.
Lakeman added that following Pacific disturbances produced lighter amounts of snow during the final few days of the month.
Cooler temperatures, as well as winds, are in the forecast for the region beginning Monday.
Environment Canada is calling for clear and cold temperatures for much of the Boundary regional dropping between minus 7-9 C during the next few days — between minus 12-16 C overnight.
The cooler weather is making travel on interior highways a little less stressful. However, anyone travelling should check the DriveBC website for advisories.