Vancouver has seen 37 cm of snow this winter. Is that it for the season?
With no sign of snow in the forecast any time soon for Vancouver, does that mean smooth sailing for the South Coast as we push towards March? Or, is there snowy trouble on the not-so-distant horizon?
With plenty of golfers around Vancouver soaking up the warmth this month, does that mean it is done with the snow for the rest of this winter?
Vancouver’s seen 36.8 cm of snow so far this season, of which, more than 90 per cent fell in under 48 hours.
DON'T MISS: Vancouver golfers enjoy warm February. But climate change concerns remain
You may be lulled into a sense of snowless complacency if you’ve checked Vancouver’s seven-day forecast lately.
Does that translate to an easy stretch for the South Coast as we push toward March, or is there snowy trouble on the not-so-distant horizon?
Let’s first look at where the coldest air in the Northern Hemisphere is currently located and where it’s forecast to travel in about a week.
That slug of cold air is all the way on the other side of the North Pole in Siberia, about 6,000 kilometres away, but cold air rarely stays in one place.
By next weekend, we have high confidence that a lobe of the polar vortex will swoop down near Alaska, making southern B.C. more susceptible to intrusions of cold air and low-pressure systems harbouring below-seasonal temperatures.
Putting this all together, it’s likely that you haven’t yet seen the final flakes of winter across the South Coast –– especially as we plow toward early March.
Thumbnail courtesy of Kitty Yip, taken in Vancouver, B.C., in January 2024.
Contains files from Tyler Hamilton, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.
