Mother Nature is beginning to ease her grip on daytime temperatures but continues to keep the nighttime lows below zero throughout the Cariboo-Chilcotin.
Williams Lake will see a high of 13C on Thursday and 14C on Easter Monday, yet overnight tonight (Tuesday) it will be -8C and will dip down again on Saturday night to -7C, according to Environment Canada’s weather forecast.
The Tribune reached out to four readers — one north, one south, one east and one west of the city to get their reaction to our prolonged winter.
Claudia Blair, retired Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce executive director, lives at Tyee Lake about half an hour’s drive north.
She submitted photos of herself and family ice fishing on the lake.
“I’ve lived here almost all my life and cannot believe the winter we’ve had,” she said. “Normally the ice starts to melt and come off and there’s still two feet to auger through to catch the wee fishies!”
Read more: COVID-19: City of Williams Lake issues reminder for residents to keep socially distant
Anne Blake Cousineau lives east toward Horsefly off the Spokin Lake Road.
She forwarded a photo her husband Flip cross-country skiing on Sunday.
“We still have three feet of snow and should be skiing until late April into May,” Blake said.
She tried taking a photograph on Saturday when they were out for a ski but the sun was too bright, she added.
Out west south of Tatla Lake at Horn Lake, family nurse practitioner Patrice Gordon lives with her husband Dr. Rob Coetzee.
Gordon said they received seven inches of fresh snow on Saturday.
“Four years ago I was on my paddle-board weaving through the ice with the cat and dog .. now just over a week ago the ice was still 26 inches thick.”
She said they are very busy working as health care providers from home trying to make sure that everyone out in the Chilcotin feels cared for.
“We are very grateful to be doing so from such a beautiful place, surrounded by nature and our furry family, but oh yes, we are more than ready for spring.”
Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett lives on Horse Lake south of Williams Lake and just east of 100 Mile House.
She submitted a photograph of herself shovelling snow on Saturday and confirmed Tuesday she still had lots of snow.
“It is a beautiful sunny day,” she said.
I have been enjoying walks on the frozen ice of Williams Lake since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
I’ve had the lake to myself while out with our dog Luna which has made for very enjoyable social distancing.
Last the weekend I took many photographs of ice formations along the shore, which I thought were very stunning.
On Monday evening, I did not venture onto the ice, knowing with the warm temperatures it is not safe any longer.
In the last 30 years, ice has remained on Williams Lake until well into April in other years, including 1993 and 2002 when it was April 22 before the lake was ice free.
Back in 1992, however, the ice was gone by March 23.
Read more: CRD reminds residents to prepare for spring freshet
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