West Kootenay region got an early taste of winter thanks to Arctic outbreaks
By Nelson Daily Staff
The month of November saw winter arrive in the form of precipitation and cold temperatures said Jesse Ellis, Fire Weather Forecaster for the Southeast Fire Centre.
“The first snowfall of the season occurred the night of the (November) 10th as the first of two Arctic outbreaks pushed into the area,” Ellis explained in the monthly media release.
“The temperature peaked near 10 C on the (November) 28th in advance of a cold front that blew through town in the afternoon followed closely by a second Arctic outbreak that maintained cold temperatures to the end of the month (the coldest temperature of November was -11 degrees the night of the 30th),” Ellis added.
Ellis said more than half of November’s rain fell during the first as a series of Pacific systems embedded in a mild westerly flow passed over the area.
The region saw a break between systems on November 7 that brought partly sunny skies and the month’s maximum temperature of 15.4 degrees.
“That broke the record for that day, but falling well short of the record monthly high,” Ellis said.
Ellis said four minimum daily records were broken during the middle of November as the Arctic air settled into the valley — minus-10.7 on the 12th, minus-10.4 on the 16th, minus-10.1 on the 17th and minus-8.4 on the 18th.
Ellis said a large upper ridge off the BC coast helped block any Pacific moisture from reaching the area until November 20th, after which point a fairly eventful stretch of snow, rain, and mixed precipitation lasted until the following Friday, November 28th.
“During this stretch, the snowpack reached a maximum depth of 16 centimeters on November 26th before mostly melting off by the end of the month,” he said.
The West Kootenay region is expected to see more precipitation during the next few days before a high-pressure system returns to the province for the latter part of December.
