Vancouver dusted with earliest measurable snowfall since 1991
The blast of wintry weather that blew through B.C.'s Lower Mainland this week marked the earliest measurable snowfall recorded in Vancouver in decades.
Environment and Climate Change Canada confirmed 1.2 cm of snowfall was recorded at the Vancouver International Airport weather station on Monday – an unusual dose of winter weather for this early in November.
Meteorologist Alyssa Charbonneau told CTV News she had to go all the way back to 1991 to find records of measurable snowfall earlier in the fall. There was 2 cm recorded at YVR on Oct. 28 of that year.
"I remember that, because I think there was still snow for Halloween," Charbonneau said.
She noted that Vancouver's records only capture snowfall at the airport, and that there could have been earlier snow more recently than the 1990s in higher elevation areas.
"With the airport being at sea level, it tends to be warmer than some parts of Metro Vancouver," Charbonneau added.
Some Vancouverites might remember seeing snow on Nov. 3, 2017, though it wasn’t enough to make Environment Canada’s records.
While it's not that unusual for Vancouver to see snowfall in November, Charbonneau said it's usually in the second half of the month.
On social media, many people were delighted to see a light dusting of snow this week – but others found the snowfall alarming, particularly coming so soon after the unseasonably warm and dry conditions that stretched from the end of summer into October.
"Just turned from summer to winter in less than 2 weeks," Twitter user Justin Chan wrote. "Usually the first snow is magical, but not this year."
Charbonneau acknowledged the snowfall feels like a "big swing" from the conditions that were recorded last month, and which led to droughts and an extended wildfire season, but said wild swings are actually more or less normal.
"The weather swings between different patterns and extremes all the time," the meteorologist said.
According to Environment Canada, there was about one cm of accumulated snow by the end of Monday at YVR airport, but other regions likely saw more – including Burnaby Mountain, where social media videos captured scenes of a winter wonderland in the mid-afternoon.
Forecasters are expecting temperatures in the region to remain chilly for the next few days before warming up a bit at the end of the week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.