Puntzi Mountain in the Chilcotin holds bragging rights of being the coldest place in Canada Thursday morning, Feb. 11, 2021 with a bone-chilling temperature of -44.4C.
Williams Lake is also unseasonably cold Thursday morning, with residents waking up to an early morning temperature of -32C. Quesnel is even colder at -33C.
The 100 Mile House area is the coldest city in the Cariboo with a morning temperature of -38C. School buses servicing the 100 Mile House area, including Lac La Hache, Bridge Lake, Horse Lake and Forest Grove, are not running today due to extreme cold weather.
The average low for this time of year is -9.6C, according to Environment Canada.
Several communities in the north and central Interior broke record low temperatures Wednesday, Feb. 10 including Quesnel and Williams Lake.
Quesnel set a preliminary new record of -35.3C at the airport, breaking the old record set in 1905 with a temperature of -34.4C. Records have been kept in Quesnel since 1893.
Williams Lake also set a preliminary new record of -30.2C, breaking the old record of -29.9C set in 2019. Records in Williams Lake have been kept since 1960.
Puntzi Mountain set a new preliminary record too, recording -41C and shattering the old record of -38.8C set in 2019. Records have been kept in the Puntzi Mountain area since 1959.
Arctic air over the region is continuing to give extreme cold wind chill values of near -40C to -45C Thursday morning.
Environment Canada notes in northern B.C., temperatures will slowly climb today but in the central B.C. Interior wind chill values near -40C are forecast to redevelop Thursday night.
Read More: Updated policy sees Cariboo Chilcotin school buses running during extreme cold warning
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