Photo Credit: Curtis Galbraith

By Shane Clausing

Weather

Temperatures set to drop in Peace Region

Dec 11, 2020 | 5:00 AM

After a stretch of warmer than average weather to begin December, the Peace Region will begin to see winter temperatures once again.

According to Environment Canada Meteorologist Alyssa Peterson, the temperatures in the region will drop significantly as we head into next week.

“What we just had was a big ridge of high pressure that made temperatures 10-15 degrees above normal here for the first week of December. What we’re getting now is kind of in the transition.”

“We are in the normal for the remainder of this week and into this weekend, then there is going to be a low-pressure system that is going to move through Alberta, and behind it a surface ridge of high pressure that is going to suck in a whole bunch of cold air from the north.”

With colder temperatures arriving early next week, Peterson adds that the low pressure system could also bring some snow with it.

“When we get these cold arctic outbreaks like this they usually come with a snow push as that system moves through. At this time we don’t really know how much snow we’re going to get.

“On Saturday it looks like we’re probably looking at about 2-5 centimeters with that. Then kind of into Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there’s a little bit more uncertainty there. We could end up with up to 10 centimeters on those days, but we could also end up with nothing in Grande Prairie itself. It depends where the system forms.”

Peterson is anticipating that the Peace Region could be in this deep freeze for a little bit.

“The normal for this time of year is around minus seven and next week we’re forecasting in the minus 20s. It’s looking like our long-range forecasting is kind of indicating that it should last through next week, but then by the weekend (December 18) we’re looking at back to closer to normal. Maybe not minus 20, but maybe closer to minus five or 10.”

As of 5 a.m. December 11, meteorologists at Environment Canada are predicting the temperature to drop on Saturday to a high of minus 12. Nighttime lows below minus 20 are expected through the weekend and into the early part of the week.