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Greater Victoria to see windchill low of -10C on Tuesday

Cooler conditions in part fuelled by lingering La Nina conditions
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Snow falls near the Malahat on Nov. 18. 2021. (Emcon Services Inc./Twitter)

The snow on the ground at the start of Family Day is part of a small system of colder air that’ll hang over Greater Victoria until Friday.

The pattern could see temperatures drop as low as -10C with wind chill overnight on Tuesday.

Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan said the weather over the next few days could be described as a “modified Arctic front” but that temperatures aren’t beyond the norm. He added that temperatures feel colder because temperatures have been slightly warmer than average the past couple of weeks.

“Spring is in the air and that sounds contradictory. But there is actually a lot of convection or vertical movement in the air pattern, as we kind of see this low-pressure system kind of think south of us. So we’re on the cold side of some cold air kind of making its way down the coast.”

With the sun rising earlier in the day, temperatures during the daytime are set to remain above zero. But overnight, wind chill temperatures could be serious for Greater Victoria’s homeless population, said Castellan.

Spring as a whole is likely to be slightly cooler than average, with La Nina conditions – cooler ocean surface temperatures leading to lower temperatures and more precipitation – in place for Vancouver Island and the Pacific coast as a whole. These conditions could be in effect through March into April, but will be much milder in B.C. than in other areas, Castellan said. He added B.C. usually sees the impacts of La Nina conditions in late December early January, when much of the Island was hit with large amounts of snowfall.

ALSO READ: UPDATES: Heavy snowfall closes schools, cancels flights, transit, ferry service across Greater Victoria

Monday night temperatures are forecasted to reach -2 C below the historical average low of 1.5 C, but higher than the record low for Feb. 21 of -6.1 C, set in 1957.

Temperatures will continue to dip into the negatives overnight until Saturday.


@moreton_bailey
bailey.moreton@goldstreamgazette.com

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