After the hottest week of the year in Okanagan, a bit of upcoming rain and slightly cooler temperatures are a welcome sight.
“It’s a big change,” said Doug Lundquist, a meteorologist for Environment Canada. “We touched near 40 C in some places, ending up in the high teens or twenties for Sunday is going to be a big change.”
This week, Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for the Okanagan due to high temperatures, but Lundquist said heavy rain and even thunderstorms can be expected for the weekend while the nearly 20 C shift in temperature takes place.
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Lundquist said the cause of the change is a low-pressure system moving in from Oregon that’s getting “pulled up into the flow of Southern B.C.”
“We need it,” he said. “It’s a really important change in the sense that I’m sure fire-weather forecasters will be happy to see showers around, humidities up and temperatures down. It’s a great situation from that perspective.”
While warm weather is expected to come back, Lundquist said the Okanagan shouldn’t be expecting anything similar to what we’ve seen over the past week. Temperatures should return to seasonal norms by next week.
“For next week it’s neither here nor there,” he said. “Temperatures will pick back up to the mid-twenties but there will still be some cloud mixed with sun, chances of showers and thunderstorms; that kind of thing. It won’t be the extreme heat, nor the chance of severe weather this weekend.”
For more information, go to weather.gc.ca.
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