Beautiful blue sky kicked off the month February yesterday

Prince George, B.C. – January came in like a lamb, before the arctic ‘lion’ reared its ugly head with some of the coldest temperatures the region has seen in the last few winters.

Environment Canada Meteorologist, Jim Steele, says a couple of bursts of very mild air made for a pleasant start to the first 10 days of the new year, with two record daily temperatures set – the warmest day of the month was January 4th, when the mercury hit plus 7.9-degrees.

The temperatures then started dropping with the first real intrusion of arctic air and some really cold wind chills, and bottomed out with a four-day deep freeze between the 16th and 20th of the month.  Steele says it was a bone-chilling minus-34 on both the 18th and 19th – the coldest temp recorded was an overnight low of minus-34.4 on the 19th.

The meteorologist says temperatures moderated back to well above normal by the 22nd – almost three-degrees above the norm – and remained mild through to the end of January. 

And, despite two major snowfalls on the 21st and 28th, Prince George region ended the month well below normal – our 37.1cm of white stuff was just 66-percent of the normal amount received.