As Prince George sits under both an extreme cold warning and air quality advisory, it begs the question... when will this extremely cold and stagnant winter weather come to an end?
“We had a ridge of high-pressure move in from Yukon, Northwest Territories so we call it an arctic ridge,” says Environment Canada Meteorologist Doug Lundquist, about this particular cold snap which started on Saturday, Jan. 11.
“We are at about the coldest point at our winter so it just happened at the right time to be very cold for us.”
Tonight (Jan. 14), Environment Canada is predicting a low of -38 C for Prince George with wind chill value of -50 C overnight. The average low for this time of year is the (seemingly almost tropical) -14 C.
Although the temperature has been extremely cold, it’s not enough to break or set any particular weather records for Prince George.
The lowest temperature recorded for Jan. 14, for example, was -48.3 C in 1953.
Lundquist says this particular arctic ridge will only persist for another day or two and then things will start to warm up.
“Between [Thursday] and early next week we will continue to have the flow change and warmer and warmer conditions move in so by Monday afternoon we might possibly see temperatures above zero,” says Lundquist.
“We have another one night of cold and another day or so of cold and then starting Thursday is the beginning of that warming trend, but It means at least one or two good dumps of snow.”
He says usually as temperatures warm up we get snow.
“In the city, it’s usually in the five to 10 cm range, but we will see what happens and start to solidify numbers as we go over the next couple of days.”
Lundquist adds that as we deal with these extremely cold temperatures and move into snowfall, it is important to be prepared for the conditions.
“Especially for travellers. If it’s cold you need to be safe,” he says.
“If you have a breakdown you need to have warm clothing and warm blankets. You should have your vehicle in good condition because it takes time to get help and you don’t want to be cold and so make sure everything is continuing to be checked and winterized.”
