Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

Winter Weather

Cold weather putting a strain on Kamloops shelters

Feb 8, 2021 | 4:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — Arctic air has moved into B.C., bringing with it much colder temperatures than Kamloops has seen so far this winter.

“We do get these ridges of high pressure, these Arctic ridges, throughout the winter,” said Environment Canada Meteorologist Doug Lundquist. “We normally can see it maybe in November, usually in December we have one and for sure in January. It took a long time this year and it waited all the way until February.”

According to Lundquist, Kamloops could see overnight lows in the -20s range.

“It depends on how much cloud drifts in,” he said. “We have kind of a weak system coming down for Tuesday night (Feb. 9) into Wednesday that might moderate the temperatures a little bit, but [Monday night] we could have -20 in the Kamloops area and then again a little bit later in the week.”

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With temperatures dropping, concerns are mounting for the city’s homeless population.

“The biggest thing that worries me is somebody freezing or getting cold, hypothermia type of thing,” said Kelly Thomson, managing director at The Mustard Seed. “Most of the people, fortunately, we’re able to give them sleeping bags if we have them, coats, try to keep them as warm as possible.”

Due to COVID-19 protocols, The Mustard Seed can only allow 20 people inside for their mat program overnight. With the program at capacity nearly every night since November, staff are working with other agencies to find space for people in need.

“There still are those who do not want to be indoors,” Thomson said. “They’d prefer to be outdoors and that’s a choice that they have; they are private citizens and we have to respect that.”

An emergency shelter has been operating inside the Kamloops Curling Club building since late January.

“We’ve gone from around 60 per cent to about 96 per cent occupancy within the last few weeks,” said Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Acting Executive Director Alfred Achoba. “Obviously, the last few days we also saw that number grow to around 98 per cent.”

Since opening the shelter the Kamloops branch of the CMHA has been able to move eight people into more permanent housing.

Within the next few weeks, the CMHA will be looking at opening up an overflow shelter at Memorial Arena. Meantime, both the emergency shelter and The Mustard Seed are looking for donations of warm clothing items.

“We’re looking for winter gear, socks, head warmers, anything that can keep people warm, jackets and stuff like that,” Achoba said.

Environment Canada is expecting more seasonal temperatures by the weekend.