iN PHOTOS: Brown Christmas not unusual in Kamloops, Okanagan

The valley bottoms in Kamloops and the Okanagan are brown this year with residents experiencing a green Christmas for the second year in a row.

A series of storms along the coast are stripping moisture out of the air and sending warm air into the southern Interior, said Environment Canada’s meteorologist told iNFOnews.ca in an interview earlier this week.

Christmas Day this year had temperatures above zero with periods of light rain in Kamloops and the Okanagan. The last time residents in these regions had a snowy white Christmas Day was in 2022.

That year snow began falling in early November and 18 centimetres were on the ground for Christmas Day in Kelowna and 7 cm in Kamloops with 0.2 cm more falling on Dec. 25, making it the snowiest Christmas on record for the previous decade. 

According to the federal government’s historical Christmas snowfall data, a green Christmas is not unusual. Since 1989, Kelowna has had 15 green Christmas Days, Kamloops has had 17 and Penticton 22. Vernon is not a listed city on the chart.

For the period between 1955 and 1988, Kelowna had 10 green Christmas Days, Kamloops 16 and Penticton 22.

Meteorologists consider 2 cm on the ground necessary to qualify as a White Christmas.

A Perfect Christmas is defined as having snow on the ground of 2 cm or more on Christmas morning and snow falling sometime during Christmas Day.

According to the data for the years from 1955 to 2007, Kelowna had 26 perfect Christmas Days, Kamloops had 25 and Penticton 11.

The forecast leading up to the New Year shows daytime and overnight temperatures hovering around zero degrees in Kamloops and the Okanagan with scattered periods of rain.

Snow is forecast in the Okanagan overnight on Friday, Dec. 27 and during the day on Sunday, Dec. 29.

Kamloops has a chance of flurries or rain showers on Friday, Dec. 27 into the following day.

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