Thanksgiving weekend to be the coldest in Vancouver in more than a decade

A Harbour Air seaplane passes the downtown skyline while on approach to land on the harbour in Vancouver on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

VANCOUVER -

A meteorologist says residents of Vancouver will be able to chill the beer for their Thanksgiving dinner just by leaving it on their porch.

This weekend will be the coldest Thanksgiving weekend since 2008, according to the Weather Network's Tyler Hamilton.

That year, the temperature measured at the Vancouver International Airport stayed below 12 C the entire weekend.

The cooler weather is expected to settle in for a few days on the West Coast, and some areas, including Whistler, B.C., can expect highs in the single digits. 

In Vancouver, meteorologists predict a high of 10 C on Thanksgiving Monday, and 12 C the day before.

Similar temperatures are predicted by Environment Canada. The agency then expects temperatures to rise slightly into next week.

The average high for Oct. 10 is 14.5 C, a bit warmer than expected this weekend. But it's been worse. The coldest-ever Oct. 10 was in 1965, when the mercury dropped to 1.1 C. The warmest was two years earlier, when the high reached 22.2, Environment Canada data shows.

It's expected to be chilly across Western Canada, with below-seasonal temperatures in the forecast for an area from the Pacific in toward Regina.

But the rest of the country, according to Hamilton at the Weather Network, may be surprised by above-normal temperatures. In fact in some parts of Canada, temperatures will actually be warmer than those in some parts of Mexico.

Hamilton compared Tijuana, with a high of 20, to the shores of Hudson Bay, forecasting a high of 23 in Moosonee, Ont.

In Toronto it may be even warmer. A summer-like high of 25.5 is the record for the city, set on Oct. 10, 2011.

This Thanksgiving is expected to be the warmest since then, with a forecast high of 20 on Sunday.