Last month will go down in history as one of the warmest Decembers ever in both Quesnel and Williams Lake.
Chris Doyle, a Meteorologist with Environment Canada, says it was the 5th warmest on record in Quesnel dating back to 1900, and the second warmest in Williams Lake, where the records go back to 1982.
“Quesnel was quite warm with a mean December temperature of -0.8 degrees. The normal mean temperature is -5.9 The mean is, you take the maximum and minimum and divide by two, that gives you the mean. Wiliams Lake was also warm, and it had actually a departure from the average conditions even bigger than Quesnel. The mean temperature was -1.6, the normal mean temperature is -7.3, so it was nearly 6 degrees warmer on average in the month of December.”
Doyle says Quesnel and Williams Lake were quite different when it comes to precipitation.
“Quesnel was quite a bit wetter than average. Total precipitation at the Quesnel Airport was 74.1 millimeters. Normal precipitation is 41.6, so you’ve got 178 percent of normal precipitation in Quesnel in December of 2024. But Williams Lake, it was the flip side. Normal precipitation is 37.6. This December it was 27.4, so a drier December, 2024 than average.”
The wettest December on record for Quesnel was 100.1 millimeters back in 1956.
Looking ahead, Doyle says it’s going to be a bit of a roller coaster when it comes to the weather.
“We’re starting off pretty cold for sure, and then later on this week and into early next week it’s going to start to warm up gradually. As it warms up between say now and the middle of next week thee will be snow from time to time. We’re not forecasting big accumulations but it’s going to be pretty regular, so it’s going to be a week of winter driving at times. And then beyond the middle of next week, say January 8th, we do see a warming in the model that takes us out into the middle, perhaps even into the last third of January, and then we’re starting to see a return of cold.
The normal high for this time of year is -5, while the normal low is -13 degrees.
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