Our wacky winter weather continues with near-record warm temperatures forecast for today in Prince George the central Interior and much of northern B.C.
The atmospheric river that brought strong winds, heavy rain and flooding to southwestern B.C. continues to influence weather patterns all over the province and in Prince George we could break a record that’s stood for 93 years.
“It’s warm here but it’s very warm in Prince George compared to seasonal,” said Alyssa Charbonneau, an Environment Canada meteorologist based in Vancouver.
“From the south coast of BC to the southern Interior and the central Interior and up to Fort St. John we are forecasting temperatures that are very close to record-breaking for today. We’re still in this very mild flow certainly for the first half of this week and we don’t see that cooling down a bit until we get into the weekend.”
Environment Canada predicts a high today of 12 C, which could match the record of 12.1 C set in 1931. There’s also a 40 per cent chance of rain showers and winds gusting to 60 kilometres per hour.
On Sunday, the mercury hit 8.4 C at Prince George Airport, short of the record 12.2 C set in 1940.
Normal for this time is a high of -4.3 C and a low of -12.7 C. If it gets as warm as predicted today, that would be 16 degrees above normal for Jan. 29.
The low for today is expected to be 9 C, almost 23 degrees warmer than normal.
Quesnel’s highs will be in the 11-12 C range for the next four days.
Fort St. John is heading for a high today of 12 C and 8 C on Tuesday. Average for this time of year is -9 C.
It's even more dramatic in Fort Nelson, where it hit 13 C by 3:30 p.m. That's 28 degrees above the normal -15 C.
In Prince George, we haven’t dropped below freezing since Friday and that’s expected to continue through much of this week with highs in the 5-7 C range through Friday and lows of O C on Tuesday, 5 C on Wednesday and 4 C on Thursday.
Colder weather is in the long-range forecast starting Friday night, with a low of –9C, dipping to -16 C by Saturday.
Unfortunately for skiers, snowboarders, skaters and tobogganers there’s no snow predicted for the next week.
