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Early snowfall and cold breaks records in Chilliwack

When snow started in Chilliwack on Thursday evening, that was the earliest snowfall in 29 years
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A fresh blanket of snow was what Chilliwack and the Lower Mainland woke up to Friday. Snow in this photo whitens the White Rock pier. (Aaron Hinks photo)

It should start warming up a tad in Chilliwack.

Sunday was day 3, and the final day of record-breaking cold temperatures for early November, according to Roger Pannett, volunteer weather observe for Environment Canada.

The snow started coming down at about 4 p.m. on Thursday and by sunset after 6 p.m. there was already 10 cm accumulating in the south side of Chilliwack in Sardis/Vedder Crossing, but less than half that amount on the north side.

It was the heaviest and earliest snowfall in Chilliwack in more than 29 years, said Pannett.

“Our last November snowfall occurred six years ago with 10 cm on November 17, 2011,” he reported.

It is only eight months since Chilliwack last saw snow on March 9.

The rest of the weekend was chilly.

Chilliwack reached only 4 degrees Celsius in the sunshine on Sunday, with blustery and cold winds from the northeast. That made it a record-low max temperature, where the previous low max for the day was 6 C back in 1910.

Saturday saw a record-low max of zero, which was 11 chilly degrees below normal. The previous low max was 3 C in 1994.

A record low mean -0.5 C was 8.1 degrees below normal, and the previous low mean 1.7 C in 1881 and 1994.

There was only a dusting of light snow on Saturday, with accumulation at only 0.4 cm since 8:30 a.m.

After Friday’s trend-setting 0.3 C, which was also more than 11 degrees below normal, there was still 5 cm of snow remaining on the ground.

“It was the coldest November 3 since Chilliwack records commenced in 1881,” said Pannett.

Previous low max for Nov. 3 was 4.4 C in 1919.


 

@chwkjourno
jfeinberg@theprogress.com

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Jennifer Feinberg

About the Author: Jennifer Feinberg

I have been a Chilliwack Progress reporter for 20+ years, covering the arts, city hall, as well as Indigenous, and climate change stories.
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