Penticton has set a record for consecutive days without rain.
Alyssa Charbonneau, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the city has gone 62 days — as of Tuesday — with no precipitation.
“The previous record was 50 consecutive days with no rain that was set in 1957,” said Charbonneau. “There was trace rainfall on Aug. 12 and 13 that was really spotty and didn’t hit the observing site.”
From June 29 to Aug. 29, Penticton has not seen any measurable precipitation. The previous record of zero precipitation was set from Aug. 12 to Sept. 30, 1957.
Charbonneau said there is a cooling system moving through the region currently and again next week, however the general dry conditions will persist across the region.
“A lot of times rain can be accompanied with those systems and some wind which usually does help clear out that smoke. But there is also a high pressure ridge right now that kind of acts like a lid in the atmosphere and keeps the smoke in place,” said Charbonneau.
Related: Ash falls in the sky, smoke lingers in the Okanagan
The smoke that has sunk into the valley is coming from wildfires in Washington State, Oregon and California. Charbonneau said a ridge is anticipated to build back in the latter part of the long weekend and she expects the weather to be back to a hot and stagnant air pattern.
Charbonneau said Kelowna is on track to have their warmest month on record and driest on record as well.
