Dreams of white Christmas come true in Vancouver, while cold grips Prairies
VANCOUVER — Known for rain and mild winters, British Columbia’s west coast received an unexpected white Christmas as much of Western Canada shivered through extreme cold warnings and some parts of Ontario suffered through freezing drizzle.
“We only get one about every 11 years. That’s how infrequent it is,” Environment Canada meteorologist Gregg Walters said of the two to five centimetres that Vancouver and surrounding areas saw on Saturday.
The criteria is a little challenging, Walters admitted. There technically has to be two centimetres on the ground by 7 a.m. for it to count as a true white Christmas, and he said it didn’t start snowing until later Christmas morning.
“The last time we actually had a dusting of snow on Christmas Day was in 2017,” he noted, although he wasn’t sure if two centimetres accumulated then.