Most Significant Winter Events in SW B.C. History

[Typeing3]

I recently saw a similar thread on the american forums and thought we could do with one too. The list can either be from a historical perspective or your own personal experiences.

From a historical perspective, my top 5 would be...

1: Jan 20th-Feb 10th, 1893. Unfortunately, not too much data exists for this period in history, as even though there were quite a few stations by then, a gap in data occurred during this period. Nevertheless, the info from this event is based off two long running stations on the south coast; Agassiz and Esquimalt. During this event, temperatures dipped below freezing on the 25th and remained there until the 5th at Esquimalt and the 9th at Agassiz, a spell of 11 or 15 days. What is remarkable about this event was extreme cold coupled with extreme snowfall. On the 29th at Esquimalt, snow began falling as temps began dipping from already moderately cold levels of around -4C. Over the next five days, 100cm fell. This was coupled with very cold temperatures that dipped to -18.9C on the 31st, after a high of -12.2C with 15.2cm of snow. At Agassiz, temps were brutally cold during the same period; naturally less snow fell (56cm), but that was still with temperatures which dipped to an astonishing -25C on the 31st. Even more astonishing was the high on the 3rd of Feb...-19.4C! The following day, around 46cm of snow fell coupled with temps hovering around -18C the entire day.

2: January 10th-25th, 1935. Not one of the most well known events in our history, but certainly one of the most significant. The first snows that fell on the 10th totaled 10-20cm and were followed by a brief warmup over the following few days however it would not last. Another blast of snow followed on the 15th and 16th with similar totals of 10-20cm. Over the next three days, temperatures plunged, dipping to -16C in Vancouver. On the 20th and 21st, snow fell, totaling 40-70cm over two days. This was followed by an ice storm which resulted in up to 100mm of ice into the fraser valley. The AR event which occurred soon after was even more significant....200-400mm in just four days.

3: December 19th-30th, 1996. One of the snowiest stretches in recorded history for many areas on the south coast. The first snowfall on the 19th was quite wet, limiting accumulations to around 10cm. The next few days featured a warmup with rain showers. However, arctic air wasn't far away as on the evening of the 22nd, temperatures dipped and by the 23rd, nearly 20cm had fallen. The next few days were clear and cold with temps dipping into the negative double digits on christmas day. Another arctic front came baraling down from the north late on the 27th just as snow was beginning to fall. The coldest day of the month was on the 28th, when temps struggled to hit -7C. Conditions rapidly deteriorated on the 28th and heavy snow began to fall; this continued unabated until the night of the 29th when the snow turned to freezing rain. Finally, on the 30th, temps warmed and rain began to fall. Fortunately this was not followed by an intense AR event like 1935.

4: January 1950. The coldest month on record for most locations where records date back to the late 1890s. No month in this ~130 year timeframe has even come close to matching Jan 1950 record setting cold anomalies. The average high/low at YVR during the entire month was roughly -3C/-10C, which made for a mean temp of about -6.5C. Around 100cm of snow fell at most locations during the month; quite significant but nothing too unusual as it was the sheer unrelenting cold which made this month special. Three distinct arctic blasts visited the south coast over the duration of the month, each dropping mean temps below -10C for at least a few days at most locations. An extreme low of -17.8C at YVR occurred on the 14th.

5: January-February 10th 1916. A special ~40 day stretch for the entirety of the south coast; no more so than for the island. January 1916 was very cold, coming close to January 1950 in terms of numbers. For most on the mainland, January 1916 dropped around 50-100cm of snow with the story mostly being on the persistence of cold. However, on the south island, snow was also dispersed throughout the month, but snow totals reached closer to 200cm. Marginally warmer temperatures and the location relative to the stormtrack played a big role in the south island receiving so much snow. The largest storms, on the 1st/2nd of Feb and the 6th/7th, dropped an insane amount of snow on all locales. 60cm in Agassiz and 75cm in Victoria; no storm dropped more snow on the city in such a short period until the blizzard of 1996.

Honourary mentions:
January 10-28th, 1954.
January 11-15th, 1971.
December 15th-January 10th, 1990/91.
December 13th-January 5th, 2008/09.

What do you guys think? What is a list of your personal and historical favourites?

[Glacier]

I would have to think about the proper order, but January 1950 would probably be near the top of my list. Or should I just say the winter of 1950. The amount of deviation from any other month is unbelievable.

Another winter on my list would be the winter of 1968/69. This was the first winter my mom experienced in BC. She was shocked to have BC winters COLDER than anything she'd experienced in Ontario or New York. She almost died that winter when their boat got stranded up one of the inlets (can't recall off hand which one (Bute or Jervis maybe).

Absolutely amazing how cold it was then. at 52N in the Chilcotin (which is the bottom 1/3 of the province) the temperature was -63F, which is the all time December record for BC.

WINTERTEMPS.png

Another cold snap that could make the list was in my lifetime, and that was November of 1985. This one absolutely blows all other Novembers out of the water. The temperature in the interior bottomed out at -53F.

Novcold.png

And let's not forget February of 1936. Brutal cold never before seen in February. Interestingly enough it was the same year the prairies were hit was the most brutal heat wave of all time. Also, 2019 was so cold that the province hasn't seen it so cold since 1936.

Febcold.png

[SouthSardiswx]

Jan.93 that was cold and snowy for sure, I recall my friend and I drove out to the valley it was just around the 27 or 28th of Dec.92 just to check out the outflow. Back then if you were a weather nerd you'd do things like that. When we got back home to Coquitlam they closed the Highway 1 gates to the freeway due to blowing snow and 0 visibility.

[Glacier]

The fact of the matter is November of 1985 was the coldest month of all time on the south coast, at least in terms of number of deviations from the normal. It's the only month colder than January of 1950.

agassizdeviations.png

[Monty]

“5: January-February 10th 1916. A special ~40 day stretch for the entirety of the south coast; no more so than for the island. January 1916 was very cold, coming close to January 1950 in terms of numbers. For most on the mainland, January 1916 dropped around 50-100cm of snow with the story mostly being on the persistence of cold. However, on the south island, snow was also dispersed throughout the month, but snow totals reached closer to 200cm. Marginally warmer temperatures and the location relative to the stormtrack played a big role in the south island receiving so much snow. The largest storms, on the 1st/2nd of Feb and the 6th/7th, dropped an insane amount of snow on all locales. 60cm in Agassiz and 75cm in Victoria; no storm dropped more snow on the city in such a short period until the blizzard of 1996.”

Shawnigan Lake had 350cm of snow between Christmas and February 9, 1916. A difficult number to wrap my mind around really

[Typeing3]

Shawnigan Lake had 350cm of snow between Christmas and February 9, 1916. A difficult number to wrap my mind around really

Crazy stat.

The only event (to my knowledge) which comes close to that on the mainland was Jan 1-23rd, 1913. New Westminster had 165cm of snow during that period. How did Shawnigan fare in that stretch?

[Typeing3]

The fact of the matter is November of 1985 was the coldest month of all time on the south coast, at least in terms of number of deviations from the normal. It's the only month colder than January of 1950.

agassizdeviations.png

Have you looked at the stats for January 1875? That must come pretty close as well. New Westminster dropped to -20.6C that month!

[Typeing3]

Jan.93 that was cold and snowy for sure, I recall my friend and I drove out to the valley it was just around the 27 or 28th of Dec.92 just to check out the outflow. Back then if you were a weather nerd you'd do things like that. When we got back home to Coquitlam they closed the Highway 1 gates to the freeway due to blowing snow and 0 visibility.

January 1993 was the last month on record to average below freezing at YVR.

The snowstorm you're referring to was on Jan 3/4. We were already in the midst of a Arctic blast with snow already on the ground when that storm hit and dropped 25-40cm on the region. Temps plunged to -14C a few days later while average temps remained below freezing basically thru till the 20th.

[Monty]

Crazy stat.

The only event (to my knowledge) which comes close to that on the mainland was Jan 1-23rd, 1913. New Westminster had 165cm of snow during that period. How did Shawnigan fare in that stretch?

130cm which is actually a little less than we got during December 2008

[Typeing3]

And let's not forget February of 1936. Brutal cold never before seen in February. Interestingly enough it was the same year the prairies were hit was the most brutal heat wave of all time. Also, 2019 was so cold that the province hasn't seen it so cold since 1936.

Febcold.png

Compared with this past Feb....Feb 1989 actually averaged colder for some locales. Extreme mins all across the province in 1989 were also a lot colder than in 2019.

[Glacier]

Most anomalous months at BC's longest running weather station...

deviations.png

[Abby_wx]

Most anomalous months at BC's longest running weather station...

deviations.png

I don't know where they got that since January 1950 had a monthly mean of -9.5C, which is about 12C below average. I think you have manually verify all of these months, as the data cannot be trusted.

I also find it odd that they close 1893 as a start date when data goes back to 1889.

[Typeing3]

Most anomalous months at BC's longest running weather station...

deviations.png

Nice graph.

In terms of single events, I'd still say that the two week stretch in late Jan and early Feb 1893 period was the most significant anomalous event in recorded history for our area. The stats at the Agassiz station for that timeframe are absolutely insane. Still can't wrap my head around the Feb 3, 1893 snowstorm. Agassiz recorded -15C/-20.6C on the day with 45.7cm of snow.

It was equally crazy in terms of sheer cold for locales up north and to our east as well; Barkerville recorded a -36.1C/-43.3C day on Feb 2, 1893, with Keremeos at -23.3C/-30.6C on Jan 31, 1893.

[Glacier]

I don't know where they got that since January 1950 had a monthly mean of -9.5C, which is about 12C below average. I think you have manually verify all of these months, as the data cannot be trusted.

I also find it odd that they close 1893 as a start date when data goes back to 1889.

I am using the homogenized data. I don't know why they dropped the first 4 years in that dataset. I'm assuming Environment Canada thinks it's not reliable. Perhaps pre-Stevenson Screen.

This graph shows number of standard deviations. Since January has a much higher standard deviation (much more variability) than November (2.85C vs. 1.75C), a temperature 10 degrees C below normal will be 3.5 deviations below normal in January and 5.7 deviations below normal in November.

In terms of absolute coldest months on record at Agassiz going back to 1893:

COLDEST1month.png

In terms of absolute coldest two months on record at Agassiz going back to 1893:

COLDEST2month.png

In terms of absolute coldest three months on record at Agassiz going back to 1893:

COLDEST3month.png

In terms of absolute coldest four months on record at Agassiz going back to 1893:

COLDEST4month.png

[Glacier]

Perhaps the coldest month of all time since the first weather station opened in Esquimalt in January of 1872 was January 1875. Maybe even colder than January 1950!

Unfortunately there were only 3 weather stations west of Manitoba (and the only station in Manitoba was total garbage, BTW):

Spence's Bridge
Equimalt
New Westminster


Let's start with Spence's Bridge with data from 1873-1909 and then from 1980-2002.

The coldest months from 1980-2002 were:
1) Jan 1993 = -10.6C
2) Dec 1983 = -9.5C
3) Dec 1996 = -8.6C

Coldest months from 1873-1909:
1) Jan 1875 = -17.3C
2) Jan 1907 = -14.1C
3) Jan 1909 = -12.0C
4) Jan 1890 = -11.6C
5) Feb 1884 = -10.2C
6) Jan 1876 = -9.4C

Nothing from Jan 1950, so let's look at nearby stations:
Hope: -12.6C
Lytton: -18.6C
Princeton: -20.2C
Kamloops: -21.6C
Merritt: -24.2C

My guess is that Spences Bridge would be very similar to Lytton (Lytton was a degree colder in Dec 1983 for example), so perhaps 1950 was indeed still colder in the Spences Bridge area anyway.


Esquimalt (temperature data from 1872-1898 with most of the 1880s missing):
Coldest months:
1) Jan 1875 = -1.7C
2) Feb 1873 = -0.1C (daily max data missing so estimated from the daily low assuming maximum was 5.4C higher than the lows)
3) Feb 1891 = 1.2C
4) Feb 1893 = 1.3C
5) Jan 1876 = 1.5C

No data from January 1950, but the nearest weather station was Victoria Gonzales Hill (where my dad and grandparents lived at the time).

Coldest months at Gonzales Hill:
1) Jan 1950 = -3.3C
2) Jan 1916 = -1.4C
3) Jan 1937 = -0.4C
4) Jan 1969 = -0.2C
5) Jan 1930 = 0.1C

Gonzales Hill seems to have the average daily mean slightly warmer than Esquimalt, but it's hard to say for sure because I'm comparing a proxy station that overlaps with both to figure that out. So assuming they are similar, Jan 1950 was colder in 1950, but Jan 1875 was likely the second coldest month on record.

New Westminster:
Coldest months on record (1874-1966):
1) Jan 1875 = -5.9C
1) Jan 1950 = -5.9C
3) Jan 1916 = -4.3C
4) Jan 1907 = -3.6C
5) Jan 1937 = -3.3C

Note that Jan 1950 was colder in the day but warmer in the night:
Jan 1875: average high = -1.7; Average low = -10
Jan 1950: average high = -2.2; Average low = -9.6

EDIT: My order for coldest months of all time on the south coast are:
1) Jan 1950
2) Jan 1875
3) Jan 1969
4) Jan 1916
5) Jan 1907
6) Jan 1937
7) Jan 1930
8) Feb 1873
9) Feb 1936
10) Jan 1943
11) Jan 1909
12 Jan 1957