Meteorological anomaly

Not infrequently in winter the Chilcotin Plateau to the east, just across the Coast Range from us, fills up with very cold, dense, arctic air.

Usually when that air escapes over the mountain passes and down the fjords it is countered by relatively warm and damp Pacific systems and the result is a lot of wet snow on Mount Washington, our local ski mountain. This accounts in large part for the fact that Washington, which rises only 1585 meters above the Comox Valley, frequently has more snow pack than any other Northwestern ski hill, with the exception of Mt Baker in Washington State, which, at 3286 meters, is of course even more attractive to accumulation.


Most winters Campbell River gets maybe one or two “snow events”, which rarely last even days before they are overwhelmed by the rain. Some winters are just rainy from start to finish.

So this winter is off to an meteorologically interesting start, our contribution to Canada’s first coast-to-coast white Christmas since (apparently) 1973. So far we’ve had more than two weeks of cold (for us!) temperatures, dipping to minus 10 C and with one or two short exceptions, staying below freezing. When the snow finally arrived, it was that light, fluffy stuff we associate more with the Prairies. And it accumulated, a few cm at a time, until today we have nearly 40 cm on the lawn.

Unfortunately, Mt Washington has not received much more. Today it claims only 63 cm at mid-mountain; it is not unusual for it to have 2 meters by now. So the conditions there haven’t been worth the drive, and Sandy and I have been out on skis only once: yesterday in the local Beaver Lodge Lands.

However, it’s snowing again. The forecast is more familiar, threatening rain this afternoon. It’s been an interesting time, but with any luck we’ll be back to our usual weather pattern and winter habits soon.