A blast of winter weather has settled in over Vancouver Island, and temperatures could feel as cold as minus 10 with wind chill factored in.
Weather was brisk but sunny with clear blue skies on Monday, but a meteorologist says the weather is actually colder than it usually is.
"We are actually three to four degrees colder than normal right now," said Armel Castellan of Environment and Climate Change Canada. "It's a very crisp and clear few days here."
The cold comes from a front that moved in to the region over the weekend, thrusting temperatures below zero overnight.
The worst of the cold is expected Thursday and Friday morning, with temperatures forecast to drop to minus three or four in some areas.
"The wind chill factored in will make those minus three, minus fours turn into minus 10s pretty quickly," said Castellan.
Fortunately, it'll stay dry for most of the week.
"No chances of precipitation except for frost in the morning, that's pretty much all you're going to see," said Castellan.
That's all set to change on the weekend though, as the front breaks down and a big storm hits B.C.'s coast – bringing the potential for snow with it.
"The chance of snow remains there because we're going to have cold met with Pacific moisture, and that's a recipe for a little bit of snow sometimes," said Castellan. "Places like Port Alberni into the Lake Cowichan area obviously are more elevated, more in the spine of Vancouver Island, so the chances there are much more likely."
Colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to be the exception for winter on Vancouver Island this year.
Meteorologist are predicting warmers temperatures for the most part, and the cause may have a lot to do with a persistent warming trend in the North Pacific.
The "blob," as it has been dubbed by scientists, added to an El Nina system will likely mean cold snaps like the current one will be rare this winter, Castellan said.
