It likely won’t come as a surprise to those who spent hours shovelling their driveways this winter that snowfall exceeded normal levels in the Okanagan Shuswap.
According to Environment Canada data, Vernon had the wettest winter compared to the average year out of any Okanagan or Shuswap community. The weather station in Vernon recorded 163 millimeters of precipitation this winter compared to 113 mm on average making it 44 per cent wetter than normal.
Despite a mid-January cold snap, it was a slightly warmer than average winter overall.
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Salmon Arm received more snow than normal with 235 mm of total precipitation falling between December and February compared to 179 mm on average. Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon noted that the station which gathers precipitation data for Salmon Arm is not maintained by Environment Canada but is part of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network.
Penticton received considerably less snow than Salmon Arm or Vernon, but was about 25 per cent above normal with 94 mm.
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Precipitation data was not available for Kelowna due to issues with the weather station there. Although no firm answers on its snowfall totals were available, the temperatures in Kelowna were warmer than the average winter. The average temperature over the three-month meteorological winter (December, January and February) was .4 celsius, slightly above freezing. A normal winter in Kelowna sees an average temperature of -1.9 C.
In Penticton, the weather was even milder at .9 C compared to an average of -.2 C.
Vernon’s temperatures averaged -1.8 C compared to -2.7 C in previous years.
Salmon Arm’s temperature average for the winter -1.3 C. Previous years averaged -2.4 C.
Sekhon stressed that although the meteorological winter has come and gone, snowy and cold weather could return without warning. Overnight lows will return to well below freezing regionwide by Saturday. He suggested caution for drivers, particularly those travelling on mountain highways.
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