'Winter where are you?' Central Okanagan enjoys an unseasonably mild start to January 

'Winter where are you?'

Photo: Heather McLaren

George Mapson got his lawnmower out for the first cut of 2025 on Sunday.

Flowers are blooming, farmers continue to harvest kale and one Kelowna man even got out his lawnmower on Sunday.

The Central Okanagan is basking in an unseasonably warm start to January. Daytime temperatures have been well above 0 C for much of the past week and overnight the temperature is barely dipping below freezing.

George Mapson, who lives on Abbott Street in Kelowna shared photos with Castanet showing Red Twig Dogwood bushes in his yard starting to leaf out and flower buds forming.

“So, today, Sunday, January 12, 2025, is declared the first day of Spring on the global warming calendar,” Mapson said in a tongue-in-cheek email. He added that he was out getting the first cut this ‘spring’ on his ‘banana belt’ lawn.

In Lake Country, orchardist Alan Gatzke posted a video of his property in the sunshine on Saturday, noting that he was still harvesting kale and Swiss chard. He wondered, “Winter, where are you?”

“Normally, for this time of the year for Kelowna daytime highs should be a maximum of -2 C and the overnight low is normally -8 C,” says Environment Canada meteorologist Yimei Li.

“It’s about 5 degrees above normal, so with enough sunlight, things could still grow.”

Several people on the Kelowna Garden Enthusiast Facebook group posted photos this week of flowers blooming in their gardens. One woman said it was a first for her. Another gardener said she had crocuses pushing up, while a third hoped there wouldn't be a "really deep freeze that kills everything".

Cooler weather is in the forecast for the end of the week. Friday night’s forecast low is currently -8 C. Saturday’s high is expected to only reach -3 C.

This time last year was when an extreme cold snap hit much of the Okanagan, devastating orchards and vineyards. Temperatures plummeted to –30 °C in Kelowna on the morning of January 13, 2024, while Penticton hit an all-time record low of -27.6 °C.

Photo: George Mapson

Red Twig Dogwood bush leafed out and in bloom in George Mapson's yard.