One year has passed since Vancouver has seen any snowfall. And there’s none in the forecast.
This is the longest stretch in 25 years and unfortunately for winter sports fans, this trend may continue well into this winter too.
“The past year definitely has been super dry in terms of snow, down at sea level and also in the mountains unfortunately,” said Matt MacDonald from Environment Canada.
“The last time it snowed at YVR Airport was way back, Nov. 29, 2014, so it’s been a full year since we’ve seen any of the white stuff down at sea level in Vancouver.”
MacDonald said there has been previous dry snow years, but this past year was the least amount of snow in Vancouver since 1957.
“Vancouver’s always been a hard place for it to snow, just given that we’re right on the Pacific Ocean, lots of heat there,” said MacDonald. “It’s a challenging place to get snow and to forecast snow. But with the gradual warming of the oceans and the gradual warming of the atmosphere, I think it’s going to be an even harder place for us to get white Christmases and see snow down at sea level.”
He said this drier weather year-round will result in less snowpack to fill the reservoirs, less snow on the mountains for the local ski hills and more water restrictions throughout the summer months.
MacDonald also said that 10 years of the last 80 years have seen less than five centimetres of snowfall in Vancouver. Six of those 10 years have happened since 1980.
“I’d only expect that trend to continue here,” he said.
The effects of El Niño are not typically felt until the middle of January so B.C. may get colder than normal temperatures before then.
But it might be a good snow year next season.
The following year, 98/99, was a record-breaking snowfall year for many locations on the west coast.
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