One of the most notable Canadian weather events of 2025 was the “super hot extended summer” in B.C., when Ashcroft set a new national record.
That’s according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) meteorologist Bobby Sekhon.
Sekhon notes Kamloops had its fourth-warmest year on record in 2025.
“It was also the hottest September on record there, and August was the third-hottest August on record in Kamloops-Thompson,” he notes. “Skip forward to the start of winter in December, and Kamloops had the seventh-warmest December on record.”
That hot extended summer in 2025 was the 40.8 C temperature recorded in Ashcroft on Sept. 3. Not only was it the hottest September day ever recorded in Ashcroft — where records go back to 1944 — it was the hottest September day ever recorded anywhere in Canada.
“September really was an extended summer, like taking August and extending it for another two or three weeks for most places in B.C.,” says Sekhon. “It was September by the calendar, but the weather more like July or August.”
Sekhon says that while daily records can only tell us so much, 40+ degrees in the region at any time of year is pretty remarkable.
“The climate normals for Kamloops for the month of July from 1991 to 2020 show that the number of days with a temperature over 40 C is 0.07 days, so that’s not even one day each July, that’s one every 15 years. Climatologically speaking it’s very rare.”
It’s not just faulty memories that make people think it used to be hotter here in days gone by, adds Sekhon. “We’ve had some pretty hot summers over the last five or so years, so we may think things are normal that aren’t normal.”
Despite recording a year of heat that ranked in the top five in the city’s record books, the weather in Kamloops was out-matched by the heat in the Okanagan, which set new records in Vernon and Kelowna.
Meanwhile, in the Cariboo region, temperatures were closer to normal last year. Quesnel’s average temperature in 2025 came in at 6 C, compared to the normal of 5.5 C. The city also saw 394 millimeters of precipitation, which was about 77 per cent of the normal amount (510 millimeters).
For Williams Lake, the average temperature was 5.7 C compared to the normal of 4.6 C. Williams Lake had 366 millimeters of precipitation compared to the normal of 463 millimeters, good for 79 per cent of normal.
Whenever the temperature does get toasty, there are those who argue that the Environment Canada readings are, if anything, understating the case, at least when compared with what they see on their own devices.
Sekhon explains that all EEEC temperature measurements are set in accordance with the World Meteorological Organization, which means they are housed inside a Stevenson screen: a shelter or enclosure used to protect meteorological instruments against precipitation and direct heat radiation. The slatted enclosure is white in colour so that it does not absorb heat, while the slats provide some ventilation, and it is set at a certain height from the ground.
“That’s where we get official temperature measurements, so they’ll be different from what we get from personal thermometers on the exterior of houses or in yards or vehicles. A lot of our recording sites are at airports, so there can be elevation differences, and they can be different from what you see in urban centres.”
The mean temperature for Kamloops in 2025 was 10.7 C, which is 1.2 degrees above the norm of 9.5 C. The city’s hottest ever average temperature of 10.9 C was recorded in 2023.
Precipitation levels in Kamloops were below normal, with 209 millimeters of precipitation in 2025 compared to the normal of 273 millimetres (about 77 per cent of normal).
With files from Brendan Shykora