Last sunset of the fall of 2016 cast a  glow on the north side of the Nechako  River – photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – Winter officially arrived at 2:44  this morning,  but as Prince George residents well know it started with our two-week cold spell earlier this month.

“Here at the weather office we like to think of the meteorological winter kind of starting Dec. 1,” says Environment Canada meteorologist Ross MacDonald.

“So, we’ve been into it for a good couple of weeks with the recent cold snap. We’ve broken out of that now with a bit more of a milder push of air off the Pacific and returned to more seasonal temperatures with highs approaching zero for the next couple of days.”

He says that will dip to below highs of minus 10 on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

As for the rest of winter he says the province will experience a “weak La Nina” which will likely bring us a colder winter than the warm one last year’s warm El Nino brought us.

“In terms of how it’s playing out on our climate models it’s kind of pointing everything at more of a neutral, more normal winter which as we’ve seen has brought us some good cold spells. So, I’d expect that to return in January as well.”