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Cold snap lifting for Whistler and Lower Mainland

Record cold temperatures were logged across the province in recent days as a result of an arctic outflow, with high winds, cold and the demand for power resulting in downed powerlines, frozen pipes and other issues. According to B.C.

Record cold temperatures were logged across the province in recent days as a result of an arctic outflow, with high winds, cold and the demand for power resulting in downed powerlines, frozen pipes and other issues.

According to B.C. Hydro, demand for power peaked at 9,877 megawatts between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Monday night, an increase of 1,900 megawatts over the previous week.

In Whistler the low on Monday night was just below minus-14 C, significantly warmer than the record cold of minus-24 degrees posted on Nov. 27, 1985 - although with wind chill it felt like -28 C on Monday night, early Tuesday morning.

The average temperature for the month of November was 0.6 C, with an average daily minimum of minus-0.3 and an average daily maximum of 3.4 C degrees. The highest temperature every recorded in Whistler in November was 13.6 degrees, posted on Nov. 3, 1986.

In Squamish, a series of outages were reported since the temperatures dropped over the weekend. The most serious left 2,279 customers without power from 7:21 p.m. to around 8:17 p.m. Monday, although some customers were without power for longer than that.

Another outage affected 213 homes, leaving them without power from 4:38 p.m. on Nov. 22 to 3:49 a.m. on Nov. 23.

All told there were 10 outages reported in the Squamish area from Nov. 18 to 23.

In total, over 20,000 B.C. Hydro customers across the province lost power as winds knocked out power lines on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast on Monday evening/Tuesday morning, according to CBC. On Tuesday, another 5,000 customers in the Langley area were left without power.

In Vancouver, the high on Tuesday was -3.2 C, below the previous record of -1.9 C from 1985. Tuesday's low temperature of -9.5 C was not a record but was the second coldest November temperature recorded in Vancouver.

The good news is that the arctic outflow was predicted to move north on Wednesday, bringing warmer temperatures, clouds, snow and possibly a chance of rain at lower elevations this weekend.