It was a chilly night right across the Okanagan, in fact, it was the coldest night of the year.
According to Environment Canada, overnight into Tuesday morning, temperatures dipped down to about -18 C right across the Okanagan Valley.
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Penticton was the coldest place in the Okanagan at -18.6 C, breaking the old record set in 1986 of -18 C.
Doug Lundquist says the cold is expected to continue for the rest of the week, making this the coldest period of the winter.
“In Kelowna and Penticton it was the coldest night we’ve had here for sure,” he explains. “The forecast for tonight will be around -16 C because there is some cloud cover.”
The average low temperature for this time of the year is -4 C.
A new system will move into the region on Friday bringing snow over the weekend, where between 5 and 10 cm is expected.
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Weather is expected to return to the average normal for February on Sunday where temperatures are forecast around 4 C.
“We just have to make it till Thursday,” jokes Lundquist.
The Okanagan was hit with a similar cold-front last year in February; however, temperatures dipped at the start of the month instead of near the end.
According to Lundquist, on Feb. 8, 2017, the mercury dropped to -19 C which made last winter colder than this one.
“We haven’t had a lot of records this year, or very few of them. We had it a lot warmer at the beginning of the month, so, coming out of that it feels particularly cold right now.”
Environment Canada chalks the cold snap up to an Arctic weather system that came from the North Pole, south over B.C. and down towards California.
“If you’re on holidays down near California you could be grouchy, it is going to be warmer of course but this pipeline of cold air from the Arctic is being felt down there,” says Lundquist.
As the weather warms up the South half of the province will see snow on Friday including Metro Vancouver, where a possible 19 cm of the white stuff could fall.
@Jen_zee
jen.zielinski@bpdigital.ca
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