Dawson Creek set a new daily high temperature record on Wednesday, Feb. 4, when temperatures rose to more than 10 C above zero.
The south Peace city beat its previous record, set in 1991, by just over half a degree, according to Environment Canada, which reported the new maximum as 11.1 C.
The unseasonal warmth in the region began last month after a particularly brutal start to winter.
“If we recall back in December, we saw this frigid Arctic settling down from the north and really settling itself over the Yukon (and) northern B.C. So, that brought with it really cold temperatures, but also, very wet temperatures,” said Ken Dosanjh, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
That bitter cold snapped, and spring broke about halfway through last month. Dawson Creek broke two daily high temperature records, once on Jan. 13 and again the following day.
“We move onto January, and we’ve almost flipped the script at this point. We had this ridge of high-pressure down from the south that’s pushing up towards the territories around mid-January. That anchored itself over the province of British Columbia, and as it did, it ushered in warmer air,” explained Dosanjh.
A return to more seasonable weather was expected overnight, according to Environment Canada.
The agency forecast a low of –4 C, feeling closer to –8 C with the wind chill. Normal daily temperatures for Dawson Creek at this time of year range from –7 C to –16 C.
