Many communities across B.C. experienced record-breaking low temperatures over the Easter long weekend.
Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon says there were “27 record low minimum temperature records set on the 16th of April.”
And while some parts of B.C. saw cooler temperatures, Sekhon tells Glacier Media it was a cold weekend overall.
"It's late season cold air that's come down from the Arctic and over B.C. And that's been giving cold conditions and they kind of bottomed out on about the 16th. That seems to be when a lot of places set their records."
Sekhon notes that the Sparwood area had one of the biggest differences.
“They hit a new record of -10.8 Celsius, compared to the previous record low of -6.8 C from 1995,” Sekhon says.
Bella Bella was another community that saw a big difference from the previous record.
“Bella Bella on the Central Coast — they had record broken by 3.4 C. Their new extreme was -4.6 C, compared to the previous daily record of -1.2 degrees C from 2013,” says Sekhon.
But for the Vancouver area, it was warmer compared to other communities further north.
“It seems like we did not break it by too much. About 0.6 C is what we broke the record by but it was a long-standing record for that day. We hit -1.2 degrees C just on 16th of April, previous extreme was -0.6 C from 1896,” says Sekhon.
In general, the meteorologist says that B.C. has been on the cooler side of the month.
Why do these record low temperatures matter?
While this data of new records may seem insignificant to the average person, Sekhon tells Glacier Media that it offers a window for things to monitor, especially as the province enters warmer seasons.
“While it's good that we're not getting a lot of rapid melts of the snow at the high elevations, it's also not good because it's good to get out little, mini warm spells to help melt some of the snow but not to melt it too fast.”
This is because it raises concern for spring flooding.
“If we were to get hot, really fast for really long, that can put a lot of meltwater into the systems. But that's something we're kind of monitoring closely.”
And while British Columbians may look forward to warmer days, Sekhon says the next couple of weeks will be cooler or near-average temperatures.
“We're not looking at any extended period of hot, dry weather. It's going to be a bit of that kind of mixed bag still for the remainder of the month.”
