Each season has its share of highs and lows, but as far as precipitation goes this winter we’ve only seen the lows. In fact, we’ve had less than half of normal precipitation so far.
According to the weather report for the month of December based out of Castlegar, the area has only seen 46 per cent of normal precipitation.
Such low moisture levels can be attributed to “an upper ridge of high-pressure that dominated the first 23 days of the month,” said meteorologist Ron Lakeman of the Southeast Fire Centre weather service.
“Typically in December we get system after system rolling though with almost continuous precipitation… any system that came in was incredibly weak and lacking in moisture.”
Lakeman said the pattern that occurred for the first three weeks of December is more typical for the month of February, so it was rather unique to see such a pattern in December.
“It has no real bearing as to what the whole winter will bring,” Lakeman added.
Predictions of a La Nina winter have also yet to come to fruition, but Lakeman said La Nina’s and El Nino’s typically don’t have a great deal of influence until after Christmas in the months of January, February and March.
“Last winter was also a La Nina and the month of December last year was on the mild side, it was nowhere near as dry, but each La Nina is unique and not all are associated with heavy precipitation.”
Cooler than normal temperatures and a fairly active storm cycle through the latter months of the winter last year resulted in an abnormal amount of heavy precipitation and a large snowpack.
“As far as what we have on the mountains right now as a snowpack, it’s hard to say as to whether or not we’re going to end up with a lower than normal snowpack by the time we get to April or if we’ll make up for it as we go through the remainder of the winter,” said Lakeman.
“Commonly what we end up with is cooler than normal temperatures and that’s what we’re still [predicting] for the remainder of the winter. We don’t see it happening in the near future, but it’s still the general idea as we go through January to March.”
Lakeman said that as far as precipitation goes, it’s near 50/50 as to whether there will be significant amounts or if it ends up being on the relatively dry side of the spectrum.