With different forecasts expected by the critters who look for their shadows on Groundhog Day, My Peace Region Now spoke with a human meteorologist from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
A tumultuous start to winter brought heavy snowfall and temperatures well below zero for much of December and early January, but the weather shifted at the midpoint of last month.
“At least in the short term, we’re going to see that continuation of what January felt like. We’re going to see temperatures (at) well above normal,” said Ken Dosanjh, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Less snowfall is expected in the latter half of the season, after parts of the Peace saw more than 100 centimetres at the end of last year.
“We’re not going to see a whole lot of activity in terms of precipitation because this ridge (of high pressure) is going to, once again, come and push further north. It’s going to deflect these weather systems more towards the north coast of B.C. or the panhandle of northwest B.C., but less so over the northeast,” explained Dosanjh.
Similar to the groundhogs, he could not say for certain what the rest of winter will look like.
“Of course, daily weather is going to continue to vary and fluctuate, but it’s kind of the events like these – weeks with warm temperatures – kind of added up that make February’s story. In this case, it is one that is predicted to be above normal compared to average,” he explained.
“Winter is still not over yet, even though we’re feeling these more warm temperatures. There’s still lots that remains to be seen moving on.”
December’s temperatures were record-setting. Chetwynd reported its third-coldest December on record and Fort St. John’s December took fifth place.
“If we look at January, as a whole, on average, for let’s say Chetwynd, Fort St John, and Fort Nelson, it was on average warmer than normal by about 3.5 C to 4.5 C on average,” said Dosanjh.
Last month the Peace also saw around half of its average snowfall. Environment Canada reports Fort St. John received 62.4 per cent of its normal precipitation, while Chetwynd received 49.3 per cent.
