Environment Canada is predicting weather that could best be described as “bracing” for New Year’s Eve and Jan. 1, 2019.
Cloud is expected to start moving in overnight on Dec. 31, with a chance of flurries and low of 1 C. New Year’s Day will be cloudy with a 30 per cent chance of showers or flurries early in the morning and a high around 3 C.
That could make for a chilly dip for participants in the Coast’s Polar Bear swims, although water temperatures in Georgia Strait, as measured at Halibut Bank, have been a fairly typical 8 C for the past couple of days.
Registration for the Sunshine Coast Lions Club’s Polar Bear Swim at Davis Bay opens at 11 a.m. with the swimmers hitting the water at noon. There are five categories: youth, teen, adult, master, and family, with prizes for the top three in each category and also T-shirts available for purchase.
Highway 101 will be closed in the area around Davis Bay Wharf from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. with a detour in effect. Traffic controllers will be on duty to direct drivers.
The Davis Bay event drew about 75 swimmers and hundreds of spectators in 2018.
In Gibsons the Polar Bear Swim, sponsored by RCM-SAR Station 14, also gets underway with registration at 11 at Armours Beach. Gibsons had the most people taking the plunge last year at 83.
The warmest day for the Polar Bear swims in the last 10 years was Jan. 1, 2008, when the high was a balmy 11 C. The coldest was 2011, when the high on New Year’s Day was just -6 C.
Some other information for New Year’s revellers and travellers to keep in mind:
• Sunshine Coast Transit is offering extra trips and free service on Routes 1 and 90 starting at 7 p.m. New Year’s Eve. The buses will be on a Sunday schedule Jan. 1.
• BC Ferries is not running a 6:20 a.m. sailing out of Langdale or a 7:30 a.m. sailing out of Horseshoe Bay on New Year’s Day. Sailings begin with the 8:40 a.m. departure from Langdale.
• RCMP will be out in force New Year’s Eve, the final night of the annual CounterAttack impaired driving enforcement campaign. As of Dec. 18, police have the right to demand a breath sample from any driver pulled over for a legitimate reason, such as a CounterAttack check stop.
• People looking to dispose of their Christmas trees can drop them off for composting at the Town of Gibsons Public Works Yard, Salish Soils or Pender Harbour Transfer Station. The Sechelt Fire Department is holding their annual Christmas tree chipping event on Jan. 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with drop-off by donation.
