After being under a level five drought for most of the summer, 2023 was the driest year on record in the Bulkley Valley and Lakes District.
Throughout the year, 288.5 millimetres of precipitation fell in the region compared the annual average of 508.5 that usually falls.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Brian Proctor said this was also the warmest year on record.
“The mean temperature was 5.8 degrees at the airport. The normal mean temperature is 4.2 degrees so 1.6 degrees warmer.”
Looking at December, no new temperature records were set with temperatures remaining higher than normal.
“Our mean temperature was –2.3 degrees and the normal mean temperature is –7.1 degrees,” he said.
Precipitation was close to normal at 39.4 millimetres through the month with only part of that falling as snow.
“We’ve seen freezing rain at the [Smithers] airport so not a whole lot of snow pack up on the mountain now,” said Proctor.
Warmer temperatures aren’t expected to go away for a few days with highs close to freezing.
“It’s only as we start getting into the weekend, we start to see conditions cooling back to seasonal, and falling below that as we head into Sunday and Monday,” he said.
More snow is also expected to fall in the coming week.