Temperatures across the Okanagan are expected to climb near 30 C over the next week after an April that saw the region’s largest communities post among their warmest and driest spring months ever.
“We’re coming into the spring with a bit of a moisture deficit, and it does look like it’s going to continue to get worse,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor.
In Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon, temperatures will hit 28 C on Sunday, May 3, with marks staying near 30 C for much of next week, according to the federal forecaster.
“Temperatures are really starting to come up through the weekend,” Proctor said. “In general terms, well above normal temperatures and probably as significant, well above overnight minimum temperature as well, by probably 10, maybe even 15 degrees.”
There is no precipitation forecasted in the coming week for the Okanagan. The one exception is on Saturday, May 2, when there is a 30 per cent chance of showers.
Proctor says Penticton saw just 5.4 millimetres of precipitation last month, just 21 per cent of its normal mark. It was also the 21st warmest April in the city’s history.
Kelowna, meanwhile, experienced its eighth warmest April ever after posting a 10.4 C mean mark. The Central Okanagan city saw 7.8 millimetres of precipitation last month, 26 per cent of its normal output.
In Vernon, last month was the fifth driest April ever, with just 5.6 millimetres of precipitation. It was also the 12th warmest April ever as it posted a 10.2 C mean mark.
Environment Canada is projecting the warm and dry trend to continue through May.
“It’s warm and dry for the whole province, if I can put it that way, with that heat really being concentrated, likely down over southwest British Columbia stretching across the southern Interior,” Proctor explained, noting the province will experience a stronger El Niño — the weather pattern that brings warmer temperatures — through the summer and fall.”
“We tend to be very warm and very dry anyway in the summer season, and it’s looking like that’s maybe amplified a little bit more than normal.”