Between May 1 and July 3 the Williams Lake area received more than double the amount of rain compared to last year.
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s historical data records show 17.2 millimetres of precipitation fell in May, 61.8 mm in June and in the first two days of July 10.2 mm.
In 2017, the Williams Lake area received 31.6 mm in May, nine mm in June and zero precipitation in July.
Canada Day 2018 saw a lightning and hail storm pass through the city in the evening, bringing with it 8.2 mm of precipitation.
Lisa Erven, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said a fairly cool air mass passed through the province Sunday.
“There were people tweeting out images of snow and slush on the Okanagan connector,” she said.
Read more: Snow hits parts of B.C. in July
Leading into the spring, the Williams Lake area saw a total of 154.6 centimetres of snow between January and the end of April and 33. 3 mm of rain.
Erven said high consistent temperatures in May contributed to rapid snow melt.
Looking toward the rest of the summer, Erven said for July through September in the Williams Lake area there is a 60 to 70 per cent chance of seeing above normal temperatures.
“By how much? The range is currently in the one to two degrees above normal for that time frame. It doesn’t mean one to two above normal for each day, it means when we get to the end of three months and we look back we expect the average to be one to two degrees above normal.”
The averaging doesn’t take into account day-to-day variations that could see either cooler weather or heat spells, rain fall events or thunderstorms.
Predicting precipitation is trickier, Erven said, noting over the Williams Lake area the climate models did not see enough of a clear trend to predict either below or above normal precipitation.
The #JuneRains brought average to above average rainfall across BC, which is good news for #BCwildfire. However, forests can dry out quickly and fires can still easily be ignited, so always practice fire safety when burning or in the backcountry. pic.twitter.com/ZOXwMr2cDi
— BC Wildfire Service (@BCGovFireInfo) July 3, 2018
In the foreseeable future from July 4 to 9, temperatures will be normal to below normal for the Central Interior are predicted.
“It’s not surprising because we are still under that trough of cooler air. We will get a bit of a reprieve for a couple of days this week, but then another trough of cooler air is coming for the end of this week and the weekend.”
Beyond that, toward the middle of July the trend is toward greater chances of seeing warmer temperatures, however, Erven said it would not take much to flip flop from the forecast changing to a cooler than normal trend to strengthening and becoming a much warmer than normal trend.
For Wednesday, July 4 a high of 24C is in the forecast with a high of 28C for Thursday, July 5. Rain is in the forecast for Friday and Saturday with highs of 25C for Friday and 21C for Saturday.
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