Prince George shoppers

By Tommy Osborne

Local business

Warm, snowless winter impacting local business scene

Nov 27, 2023 | 4:42 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – This November has seen a surprising lack of snow and warm weather, which has many community members celebrating that they can go outside comfortably without excessively bundling up. While this alone is great, it also gives local businesses plenty of reason to be happy, as it provides a noticeable boost to business.

“I think this fine weather right now would really get people out of the house and shopping around more. I think that the foot traffic is key and that’s what businesses count on and rely upon, and we rely upon those businesses to be available to us in town,” said the Prince George Chamber of Commerce’s President Cathy Mackay.

While the weather isn’t traditional ‘stroll through the park’ temperatures, Mackay explained the fact that it’s comfortable to go out means people are more willing to shop in person and support local businesses, as opposed to staying at home. The warmer weather also means safer roads, which also helps get people out.

While many businesses are celebrating the weather, it’s not great for everyone. Some organizations like the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club need snow to operate, and while the Club is currently open, its Chair of Competitions Kevin Pettersen explained conditions aren’t optimal. While it’s been a bit of a challenge, Pettersen said this is actually relatively common to not have perfect skiing conditions in November, so the Club isn’t panicking.

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“Last year was a real bonus here to get that first cold snap in November and we were ready to go with the snowmakers. People really got that extended month but that’s not usually common,” Pettersen said.

While it’s certainly not a dire situation, snow is still needed soon, as the snowmakers can be quite costly and using them to completely cover the track isn’t ideal.

“It’s about two weeks of labour, but we’re generally in the millions of litres (of water), and then the electricity to run it. For example, every budget, if we’re making snow in a big way for a big event coming up, we budget, $20-25000 for that in a normal year,” he said.

As for if we’ll see colder days ahead, UNBC professor and meteorologist Peter Jackson doesn’t expect this warm streak to end anytime soon. Explaining that a combination of El Niño conditions and general global warming have been impacting our winter, Jackson says this will most likely continue for the next couple of weeks and potentially the entire winter season.

“It’s likely to be above normal in terms of temperature for the next winter period from now through March, April. In terms of the weather forecasts out two weeks, there’s no sign of a real strong cold snap,” Jackson said.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any cold though, as Jackson said weather is unpredictable so cold snaps could happen, he just doesn’t expect it in the near future. If we were to get a cold snap, he expects it to take place in January and/or February, as those are historically our coldest months.