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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been a stark contrast to Central Canada, where Toronto-based Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson says Ontario was hit with weather colder and snowier than usual, with Pearson International Airport receiving 188.8 centimetres of snow this winter.<\/p>\n
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University of British Columbia assistant professor Rachel White says a snow-free winter is visible evidence of climate change and its impact on daily life.<\/p>\n
She says that a slight change in winter temperature is more easily seen in Vancouver than in Toronto because it can mean the difference between rain and snow.<\/p>\n
White adds that Vancouver residents may not need to wait decades to see the next no-snow winter, as warming temperatures globally will likely mean a more-frequent repeat of the weather pattern experienced this season on B.C.\u2019s southern coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t really surprise me in terms of the effect that we know that climate change is having on warming temperatures,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t mean that from now on Vancouver isn\u2019t going to get snow in the winters. We\u2019ll have winters again where there is snow, but it will start to become more common that we have these snowless winters.\u201d<\/p>\n
While average snowpack levels across B.C. are slightly above average, South Coast levels are well below average, at 79 per cent of the historic median for this time of year, according to provincial Environment Ministry data issued this week. Vancouver Island levels are even lower, at 61 per cent.<\/p>\n
The impact of the low-snow winter in parts of B.C. will stretch into summer, another researcher says.<\/p>\n
John Richardson, professor emeritus at UBC\u2019s Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, says the snowpack anchors B.C.\u2019s water supply in the drier summer months.<\/p>\n
Richardson notes that evaporation is faster when liquid moisture is on the ground instead of snow, and the combined result of that and a smaller snowpack is concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time of year, there\u2019s nobody thinking about water shortage,\u201d he says, noting that this week\u2019s atmospheric river has brought hundreds of millimetres to rain to the B.C. coast. \u201cIt seems very rainy, but the last four months have all been below average, not even at the average rainfall, based on the last 40 or 50 years\u2019 record.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd while we really like the long, dry, warm summers, that\u2019s also exactly the problem with water; it\u2019s that warmer conditions, more evaporation, less water into the system is going be something that will catch us up sometime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environment Canada says precipitation at Vancouver International Airport over the three winter months amounted to about 384 millimetres, below the average of 436 millimetres, and B.C.\u2019s southern Interior communities, including Kelowna and Vernon, reported a winter both much warmer and drier than seasonal.<\/p>\n
Richardson says the lack of water will affect many areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the key thing is to realize is that it impacts so many different aspects of our lives, all the way from our drinking water supply, our supply for fighting fires, for sewage disposal, through the freshwater ecosystems, hydroelectric power generation, those things are all interconnected,\u201d he says \u201cAnd the same water is used for many of those things. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo if there\u2019s not much water, all of those things get impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a stark contrast to Central Canada, where Toronto-based Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson says Ontario was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82,55],"class_list":["post-546480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}