Forget about 2009, it’s time to talk about 2010 and the several centimetres of snow that fell in Osoyoos on Jan. 4. The snowfall which continued throughout the day created scenes of wintry tranquility, such as this shot of Gyro Park. Photo by Laurena Weninger - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-January 6, 2010
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
As far as weather goes, 2009 was abnormally normal, said Doug Lundquist, an Environment Canada meteorologist.
In weatherman language, “normal” is calculated over a 30-year period.
Compared to the last calculated “normal,” which was from 1971 through to 2000, the weather in 2009 was pretty much bang on.
Some of Lundquist’s data was collected in Osoyoos, but other data is based on statistics from Penticton – and that is the data he used to point out just how normal last year was.
The year’s average temperature in Penticton was only 0.1 of a degree above normal, he said.
Precipitation was 35 millimetres more than normal in 2009, with roughly 335 millimetres for the year instead of 300.
That said, there were some extreme moments over the year, starting with last year’s long, cold winter.
The cold lingered until the May long weekend, when it changed “practically overnight,” Lundquist said.
Then, the temperature was above normal until October, where it started going up and down, up and down, he added.
Overall, Osoyoos’s coldest day of 2009 was Jan. 3 when the mercury dipped to –21.5 C, beating the record of –19 C in 1985.
Another record low was broken on March 11, when it hit –11.5 C, beating out the –10 C low in 1969.
The hottest day of 2009 was Aug. 1, when it hit 39.5 C in town.
This winter, the coldest day was Dec. 11, when it hit –14 C.
Lundquist said there were two notable things about B.C.’s weather over the last year.
First, Canada-wide, last summer is being called “the summer of discontent.”
That is because in the West, it was very hot, but in the rest of Canada it was very cold.
In Penticton, summer temperatures averaged one to three degrees above normal.
The second notable weather-related news item is the effect that extreme heat had on B.C.’s wildfire rate, particularly in West Kelowna.
All of the noted extremes beg the question of how this can all be considered “normal,” but Lundquist has an answer to that, also.
“That actually is normal,” he said. “That’s just the nature of weather.”
The only prediction Lundquist would make about the weather for the upcoming year is that the winter may be one or two degrees higher than normal, due to another El Nino winter.
He said that every few years, the water in the Pacific Ocean is a bit warmer than normal and that makes for a change in weather patterns.
The last El Nino was in 2006/2007, he said, but the most notable recent El Nino event was 1997/1998.
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