This past summer was the hottest on record, according to data going back to 1901 from Environment Canada’s Cranbrook station.
The average temperature for summer, which is measured meteorologically from Jun. 1 – Aug. 31, is 17.3 degrees. This year it was 19.9.
“Mark it down, number one, we broke the record,” said Doug Lundquist, meteorologist for Environment Canada. “And that’s pretty extreme when you consider the record there goes back to 1901 for temperature, for the record we have it’s never been that warm.”
Though it was a hot summer, the area was actually also fortunate in terms of precipitation received, as extremely dry conditions, such as Kelowna which was the third driest ever, caused major fires throughout the summer in the Interior and around the province.
Cranbrook got 146 millimetres of rain over the course of the summer, around 15 per cent wetter than the average of 129 millimetres.
“The other thing that strikes me as unusual is your June and August,and that you were the rare place in the Interior that was actually wet enough this year, one of the few places that got enough rain,” Lundquist said.
There is a system moving in for this weekend, bringing showers from Friday night into Saturday, cooling temperatures off as it comes in, with projected highs of around 20 degrees at the valley bottom from Saturday through until Tuesday.
Another system is anticipated for mid next week, a stronger system that may be more of a wind event.
The average temperature for this time of year is 22 degrees, so the area is sitting at just a degree or two below average.
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