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The last part of January and so far the first week of February have been a story of Sun & Ice - both here in the Bella Coola Valley and the entire Province of British Columbia for the most part. Very cold temperatures and clear skies came after we were spoiled by double digit high temperatures in January. Nearby Chilcotin weather station at Puntzi Mountain has been steadily recording -39 C to -41 C lows this week, the coldest place in BC (the news media usually misses that fact because it's only a tiny community). The weather station isn't on a mountain its actually right beside the large paved WWII runway very close to Highway 20.
In the Bella Coola Valley, Environment Canada has had us under a weather "Arctic Outflow Warning" advisory all week.
To locals this means the "east wind" or "outflow". It's been a low of -10C to -12 C all week and depending where you live in the valley fairly windy -30-40 km/h and gusts of much higher.
These events always end with some sort of twist, like a big snow fall or freezing rain. For this one they are forecasting snow, which would be notable because there is no snow in the lower 2/3rd of the valley since just after Christmas. Grizzly
Puntzi-my husband was stationed there in 1959-60 when it was part of the American Air Force's "Pine Tree Line". He saw it get down to -60 F. that winter and at that base they got Arctic rations (more food !). His love of the area led him to find a place out in the West Branch and we have built a summer home there-have roots in that part of the country now.
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