Okanagan wine industry welcomes milder winter after previous year’s catastrophic losses

The vines at Tantalus Vineyards in Kelowna, B.C., are in recovery mode after last year’s devastating cold snap.

“A respite year, which we are in so far, would be wonderful for these vines to heal, to recover and to grow again properly,” said Dave Paterson, the winemaker at Tantalus Vineyards in Kelowna.

It was this week last year when overnight temperatures plunged to catastrophic lows of – 30 C, wiping out entire grape crops in the Okanagan.

“The catastrophe starts around the – 17, -18 mark and if we get down to – 27, – 30 mark again then all bets are off,” Paterson told Global News.

So far, this winter season has been a mild one with the coldest low recorded the morning of Jan. 14 at – 3.9 C, compared to an average low of – 8  for this time of year.

“Fingers crossed right now that the same weather that we have had the last  few months continues,” Paterson said.

As for daytime highs, those too are above average.

“This winter we have seen temperatures about 2.8 degrees warmer than normal in Kelowna,” said Global News meteorologist Peter Quinlan.

“Last winter, once the season was completely done, we saw temperatures two degrees warmer than normal. That doesn’t mean we can’t have cold snaps like we had last January, where we had a number of days in the – 20s all day long.”

But it’s not just milder temperatures that the Okanagan region is experiencing — there’s been less snow, too.

In Kelowna, snow-removal vehicles have been sitting idle and barely deployed to clear snow.

“We saw a couple of small events towards the end of 2024 and as we stand here in January, we haven’t one flake that required a full response,” said Geert Bos, department manager of infrastructure operations for the City of Kelowna. “So it’s been pretty minimal.”

Many local residents have been taking advantage of the milder-than-normal conditions by spending more time outside than winters past.

“A lot of people suffer from cabin fever this time of year,” said Kelowna resident James Chester.  “With it being warmer it’s great to get outside.”

Another Kelowna resident, Khoa Nguyen, said he’s pleased that ski resorts are getting good amounts of snow while the valley bottom is getting spared.

We have the snow and great skiing up top and then down here we can go on ride bikes, go on hikes and stuff,” said Nguyen. “We have the best of both worlds.”

According to Quinlan, the Okanagan will experience a cooldown next week, with highs expected to dip down into the minus-single-digit range and lows potentially into the minus double digits.

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