Although a severe thunderstorm watch continues in the Okanagan, it’s not going to rain forever. In fact, enjoy the rains because a return to summer-like weather is forecast for the weekend.
Meteorologist Doug Lundquist with Environment Canada, says this week’s thunderstorms are a bit unusual in that they have brought in so much heavy rain, with the possibility of hail.
“It’s an upper low from California that’s very moist, and that can lead to thunderstorms,” he explained.
Six millimetres of rain fell in one hour after the skies darkened Wednesday morning, but they cleared later until another storm cloud moved in.
Although storms are not that unusual in September, generally there is a drying-out as fall weather moves into the Okanagan—but this is a particularly moist storm, he said.
Beginning Sunday, he expects the weather to dry out, the sun to re-appear and a return to summery weather, but with slightly lower temperatures of mid-20s instead of low-30s—because the sun hasn’t as much power at this time of year.
That would be more typical weather for an Okanagan autumn, he says.
This past summer has been on the warm side, with July both hotter than average and also drier, with only six mm of rainfall instead of the usual 37 mm, Lundquist reports.
However, August was closer to normal, with rainfall of 28 mm, just below the normal of 34 mm; and a mean temperature of 21.5 C compared to the average of 24 C, largely due to warmer nights, he said.
But, August was a more-humid month than normal, and intermittent rain began with the Aug. 12 storm that began with a devastating hailstorm in Southeast Kelowna that wiped out some crops, and continued with rain around the 15th and the 29th of the month.
For the remainder of September, Lundquist said there’s a high probability of temperatures that are above the average. He said that’s true of the entire fall, through November.
Long-term forecasts of precipitation are unreliable, he said.
jsteeves@kelownacapnews.com
