Last month saw more chill temperatures and snow than for many a year here in Tumbler Ridge, enough that, as of December 31, there was more snow on the ground than has been there since they began tracking such data in 1982.
According to Environment Canada’s Almanac Averages and Extremes, we left 2025 with 53 cm of snow on the ground.
And that was after a few days of consolidation and melting. On Christmas Day, there was 69 cm of snow on the ground.
But even that wasn’t peak. On December 23, there was 72 cm—or just shy of two and a half feet—of snow.
The day before—December 22—saw six centimetres of snow fall. That is a record for that day, as was the 15 cm of snow on December 18 and the 14.2 cm on December 16.
That was also the day the total snow on the ground surpassed the previous record of 63 cm, back in 2006.
Other days with record precipitation were December 15, with 9 cm, December 9, with 4.8 cm, December 8 with 12 cm and December 6 with 4 cm.
It was this constant snowfall, more than the actual volume of snow that hit the town so hard.
“We’re very fortunate to have the crew that we have,” says Jason Bradley, Director of Operations . “They’re a very dedicated group of people, including our water utility people. They’ve jumped in and helped us with the equipment. Our mechanic has had to come in many early mornings to assist the crews to get them out the door. As anybody knows, working the equipment the way that we’ve been working at, you’re going to have failures. He’s been doing a fantastic job of keeping the gear moving out the gate. But there are those times where you gotta come in early. We’ve split the crew. Sometimes, one group is coming in at two o’clock in the morning, and sometimes we have crew members that are leaving at nine o’clock at night.”
He says typically, the town gets hit with a big dump of snow, but then has a week or two to clean it up before the next dump. But in December, the snow was near constant sometimes. “Back in ‘06, the town got three feet of snow overnight. It was just one of those situations. But that was one night. This didn’t stop. Previously, we would have a snowfall, and then we’d have a couple days to catch up from it. And then we get another snowfall. Well, we never got a breather this time around. It just kept coming. And we’re out there dealing with anything over two inches.”
He says winter has hit the town hard so far. “It has boxed a lot of people in. It has made winter travel difficult. It made Christmas travel difficult. But the crews are doing absolutely everything that they can do to try to keep these roads open and keep them relatively smooth.”
Bradley says that he is beyond impressed with the way the crews have functioned over the last few weeks. “I had someone tell me you don’t know what kind of a crew you have until something goes sideways. I would call this snow event as things going sideways. And everybody has stepped up. We have some very skilled and experienced people that work for the public works department. We have some newer people, and they’ve been doing so much work to keep everything clean and safe.
Bradley says it can be hard on the crews when they go out one day to clean the roads, and the next day, you can’t tell.
The one saving grace is that the snow is the only exceptional thing happening. “We’re still dealing with our normal day-to-day stuff,” says Zeb Irving, who has joined us for the interview. “Garbage collection is still happening. Our water shutoffs are still happening. We’re still getting called because water lines are freezing, though not as much as we might have had because of the amount of snow is insulating the ground at the moment. We’re still operating the transfer station. All the usual stuff is happening.”
Irvings says this means the District crews have to be very flexible and willing to pivot on the fly, with the garbage truck driver sometimes having to man snow clearing equipment in the morning and collecting garbage in the afternoon.
Bradley says this is one of the community’s biggest success, cross-training and having mentors train people so that more people can do important jobs.
“There are family emergencies,” says Bradley. “People get sick. But having multiple people trained up allows us to have the flexibility to be able to pivot in whatever direction we need to be able to achieve whatever we’re trying to achieve.”
“There’s a lot of things that people don’t think about or see,” says Bradley. “We have to make sure we can access our wells, other access points, even into the airport. This means we’re pulling resources away from town. We’re sending resources to make sure that we have open access to all the areas that we need to in order to continue managing our day-to-day stuff.”
He says people still complain about the windrows, but they’re doing their best to get rid of those. “The reason why we’d like to get rid of windrows, is for garbage pickup. We started doing it a couple years ago, so the garbage truck operator doesn’t need to manhandle the refuse can or your recycling can around these berms.
In the meantime, he says, there are at least a few days in the forecast where no snow is expected, which should allow Public Works to get on top of snow clearing.
What can the public do to help in the future? Bradley says there are a few things.
“Don’t push your snow out onto the roadway. Not only can it create hazards for others, because we may not get to it right away, so it would be preferable if you didn’t push all your snow out onto the road.”
He says making sure vehicles aren’t parked on the street when crews are going by is also helpful.
“We are running into some areas like Speiker, which is a narrow street, and we’re trying to keep that as wide as possible. Usually when we do snow blowing, that’s our catch up time. It turned into a necessity really quick, so that we can keep the roadways wide enough. If you have vehicles that are parked on the side of Spieker, you’re down to single lane in some places. And as a shift-work community, there is a bus route that starts at 4 o’clock in the morning. We try to make sure that the mains roads are all done, sanded, and safe.”
There were some bitterly cold days over the last month—December 20 saw the thermometer dip to -34.5—but it was not quite as cold as it was in 1990, when the temperature hit -40 that day.
December 27 was the coldest day of the month, hitting -36.5, but 1984 saw the temperature go down to -40.6.
Indeed, last month saw only five days where the temperature was above seasonal daily averages, four at the beginning of the month, and one at the end. The rest of the time, the temperatures were well below average, which ranges from about -4.5 to -14 degrees Celsius.
These temperatures and snow fall amounts are not actually for Tumbler Ridge, which does not feature its own Environment Canada Weather Station, but from Chetwynd, which does, so actual amounts and temperatures may vary.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
