January/February 1893 Arctic Blast

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The arctic blast in late Jan and early Feb 1893 delivered some all time cold and significant snow to the south coast. 500mb height anomalies during this event illustrate the perfect setup for extreme cold across central and southern sections of the province.

January 31st, 1893. High/lows for a few select locations around the province...
-12.2c/-18.9c in Esquimalt
-12.2c/-18.3c in Nanaimo
-12.2c/-22.8c in Port Simpson (near Prince Rupert)
-14.4c/-25.0c in Agassiz
-23.3c/-30.6c in Keremeos
-23.9c/-33.3c in Kamloops
-26.1c/-42.8c in Donald (near Golden)
-27.8c/-35.6c in Quesnel
-31.7c/-40.6c in Barkerville

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Feburary 2nd, 1893. A renewed push of arctic air.
-11.1c/-14.4c in Esquimalt
-11.1c/-17.2c in Nanaimo
-16.1c/-23.3c in Port Simpson (near Prince Rupert)
-19.4/-24.4c in Agassiz
-23.9c/-30.0c in Keremeos
-24.4c/-32.8c in Kamloops
-26.7c/-32.8c in Donald (near Golden)
-27.8c/-37.2c in Quesnel
-36.1c/-43.3c in Barkerville

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Seattle:

The Big Snow of 1893
By one newspaper account the big snow of 1893 began on January 27 and kept up almost steadily dropping 45 inches before it stopped on the February 8, 1893. On February 3, a reading of 5 degrees below zero was claimed at Woodland Park on Phinney Ridge, while down the hill on Green Lake the ice was six inches thick.

In his book Seattle, long-time Post-Intelligencer contributor Nard Jones notes of the 1893 snow and cold that "it frightened a good many Seattleites nearly to death; they thought the end of the world was on its way and not in accordance with the Bible."

Source: https://www.historylink.org/file/3681

On February 3, 1893, heavy snow and extreme cold grips Western Washington. In Seattle, the temperature at Woodland Park stands at five degrees below zero and the ice on Green Lake is six inches thick.

A three-foot snow stopped all the streetcars in Seattle for several days and piles of snow from rooftops reached 12 feet in depth. On Front Street at the Sullivan Block a sign stuck in the deep snow read, "The Evergreen State -- Please Keep off the Grass" (Press-Times).

Source: https://historylink.org/File/2665

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Source: Frozen harbours
https://nickdoe.ca/index.html / https://nickdoe.ca/pdfs/Webp2158c.pdf

1893, Feb. 4 Valdez Island. [now called Quadra Island]

Very severe weather has been experienced here for the last 9 or 10 days. On Sunday and Monday morning last the thermometer registered one below zero [−18°C]. Everything that could freeze is frozen tight, all the little bays in the harbors (and some of the harbors too) are ice bound. Today snow is falling, it is intensely cold, and the snow is as fine as flour. Thursday morning, Feb. 2nd, the thermometer registered 2 above zero, about a foot of snow is lying with signs of more coming, verily this is the coldest snap ever had here for many years, so say the oldest inhabitants (the Indians).