January drier than usual in West Kootenay
Following the wettest year on record, 2013 started with a month that saw little more than half of the usual precipitation.
According to its monthly roundup, the Southeast Fire Centre's weather office in Castlegar received 2.4 millimetres of rain and 41.9 centimetres of snow in January, which was 54 per cent of normal.
Weather specialists Ron Lakeman and Jesse Ellis said that was largely due to an upper ridge of high pressure.
The only significant precipitation was due to a series of Pacific frontal systems between the afternoon of the 5th and night of the 8th, and another frontal system during the late afternoon and night of the 23rd.
Those five days accounted for about 85 per cent of the month's snowfall and total precipitation.
The average temperature for the month was within 0.1 of a degree of normal.
The coldest temperature was –12.9 on the morning of the 12th under relatively clear skies and calm winds. The warmest temperature was 5.5 on the night of the 9th during a southwesterly feed of moisture.
No records were set last month.
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