Two BC towns broke temperature records over 100 years old

Bright Angel Park (Roxana Gonzalez/Shutterstock)

BC is currently in the midst of a late February cold-snap and several locations within the province broke long-standing temperature records for February 23, including two that have lasted over 100 years.

Environment Canada released the data as part of its daily weather summaries, and it points to an Arctic airmass being the cause of so many records being broken.

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The city of Duncan broke a record that had been in place since 1917. The previous record was a chilly -7.2˚C. The new record for February 23 is -7.7˚C.

The other city that broke a 100-year-old record was Port Alberni. It set a record of -7.2˚C back in 1922. The new record was a bit colder, hitting -9.5˚C.

Many other parts of BC broke records today too, and many of the previous records were set just four years ago in 2018. The previous cold temperature record for February 23 in the Campbell River area was -6.6˚C set in 1982. The new record is -9.5˚C.

In the Hope Slide Area, the previous record was set in 1979, when the region saw a frigid temperature of -14.8˚C. Today it reached -16.5˚C. Malahat’s previous record was -6.3˚C which was set in 2011. The area hit -7.0˚C today.

Over to the island, Nanaimo reached a new record of -7.5˚C. The previous record was -5.6˚C, but there’s no data on when that record was set.

The Powell River area saw a new record of -5.5˚C, breaking the record of -4.5˚C which it hit in 2017.

Qualicum Beach also set a new record of -6.9˚C. The old record was -4.6˚C which was set in 2018. Sechelt set a new record of -4.7˚C, colder than the -3.6˚C set in 2018.

Sparwood was super cold today. The new record is -28.2˚C, besting a long-standing record of -26.7˚C set in 1956. Squamish also hit a new record of -6.1˚C, beating the old record of -5.5˚C set in 2018.

Tofino’s new record for February 23 is -4.0˚C, beating the -3.3˚C set in 1982. Trail just barely reached a new record today, reaching -17.4˚C, slightly colder than the -17.1˚C set in 2018.

Victoria reached a new record of -6.0˚C, besting the -5.9˚C set in 1993. West Vancouver’s new record is -5.7˚C, and the old record of -3.1˚C was set in 2018.

Finally, White Rock hit a new low of -5.5˚C, beating another long-standing record previously set in 1957 of -4.4˚C.

The summary contains mainly preliminary data and does not constitute a final report.

The good news if you’ve been sick of the cold weather, is that temperatures are expected to warm up starting tomorrow.

Here’s how the forecast pans out for the next week in Vancouver:

Environment Canada