94-year-old low-temperature records broken in B.C. Tuesday

Lillooet, B.C., is pictured in September 2017. (Shutterstock)

One day after Quesnel, B.C., broke a 115-year-old low-temperature record, two other B.C. communities eclipsed records set 94 years ago.

Tuesday was the coldest Oct. 14 on record in 22 B.C. communities, and the hottest on record in one, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Fort Nelson, in the province’s northeast corner, was the outlier. The community saw the mercury rise to 19.4 C on Tuesday, breaking the previous Oct. 14 record of 19 C set in 2018.

Elsewhere in the province, the trend was toward record low temperatures.

Both Golden and Lillooet broke old low-temperature marks set in 1931 on Tuesday. The former saw a low of -7.5 C, narrowly breaking the old record of -7.2 C, while Lillooet’s low of -2.8 C was more than a degree colder than the previous mark of -1.7 C.

Another low-temperature record set in the 1930s fell in Merritt, where Tuesday’s temperature got as low as -9.8 C, well below the 1938 record of -6.7 C.

The full list of low-temperature records reported by ECCC on Tuesday was as follows.

• Bella Bella area: New record of -0.4 C, old record of 0.5 C set in 2018
• Blue River area: New record of -7.8 C, old record of -6.1 C set in 1972
• Cache Creek area: New record of -3.5 C, old record of -3.3 C set in 1970
• Campbell River area: New record of -2.7 C, old record of -2.2 C set in 1969
• Castlegar area: New record of -4.2 C, old record of -4.1 C set in 2002
• Clinton area: New record of -8.4 C, old record of -5.6 C set in 1976
• Gibsons area: New record of 1.2 C, old record of 1.7 C set in 1966
• Golden area: New record of -7.5 C, old record of -7.2 C set in 1931
• Kamloops area: New record of -4.7 C, old record of -3.3 C set in 1952
• Kitimat area: New record of -1.3 C, old record of -1 C set in 2016
• Lillooet area: New record of -2.8 C, old record of -1.7 C set in 1931
• Merritt area: New record of -9.8 C, old record of -6.7 C set in 1938
• Nakusp area: New record of -4 C, old record of -2.5 C set in 1992
• Port Alberni area: New record of -2.6 C, old record of -2.2 C set in 1952
• Port Hardy area: New record of -1.2 C, old record of 0 C set in 1972
• Powell River area: New record of -0.1 C, old record of 0.5 C set in 2018
• Qualicum Beach area: New record of -1 C, old record of -0.5 C set in 1992
• Salmon Arm area: New record of -4.5 C, old record of -4 C set in 1992
• Sechelt area: New record of 1.2 C, old record of 2.7 C set in 2008
• Sparwood area: New record of -6.9 C, old record of -6.7 C set in 1973
• Vernon area: New record of -3.0 C, old record of -2.5 C set in 1992
• Whistler area: New record of -2.9 C, old record of -2.7 C set in 1977

Environment Canada says its temperature records are “derived from a selection of historical stations in each geographic area that were active during the period of record.”