Heat and smoke advisories lifted for the Okanagan, records broken during heat wave

“Quite a long stretch. To provide further context we pretty much saw temperatures really in the mid-30s, low- to mid-30s, all the way up to 40.1 C for Vernon [on Sunday, July 21]. So definitely a prolonged spell of seeing temperatures above 30 C.”

During the course of those weeks, 13 daily records were set in Vernon, and one other was tied for hottest day on record.

July 7 high maximum (daytime high) of 36.1 C / previous high of 34.5 recorded in 2017
July 8 high maximum of 47.5 C / 36.2 in 2015
July 8 high minimum (overnight low) of 17 C / 16.4 in 2015
July 9 high maximum of 39.6 C / 36.7 in 2015
July 10 high maximum of 38.2 C / 35.8 in 2021
July 17 high maximum of 39.0 C / 36.9 in 2018
July 18 high maximum of 36.7 C / 36.7 in 1960 (tied for hottest day on record)
July 19 high maximum of 37.2 C / 37.0 in 1979
July 19 high minimum of 19.0 C / 18.1 in 2004
July 20 high maximum of 37.8 C / 3.5 in 1979
July 21 high maximum of 40.1 C / 40.0 in 1908
July 21 high minimum of 19.3 C / 18.5 in 2023
July 22 high minimom of 22.5 C / 19.3 in 2006

Dosanjh added Vernon approached a record for longest prolonged high temperatures during the nearly three weeks under the heat warning.

“From July 4 to 22 we saw temperatures above 30 C consecutively for 19 days,” Dosanjh said.

“Now while that’s not a record for Vernon, it is pretty close. It is the third most consecutive days we’ve seen 30 C temperatures for Vernon, with our records going back to the 1900s. It looks like the top two records were 22 consecutive days of 30 C plus, that was set back in 1906 and [again] in 1971.”

Dosanjh did not have the data for Kelowna available at the time, but did state he believed the longest stretch of daytime highs above the 30 C mark for the city was 28 consecutive days. He also did not have daily temperature records for Kelowna.

Looking ahead to the rest of the summer, the meteorologist said temperatures in Vernon may “hover up and down” but should stay around the seasonal normals of around 30 C, but also noted that could change in August.

“We are seeing subtle signals of a probability of above-normal temperatures for the Okanagan,” Dosanjh explained.

“We are seeing subtle red signals on the charts for above normal average temperatures, but these charts don’t necessarily indicate by how much the temperatures are expected to be above-normal or how continuous those temperatures might be, because, as we know, daily weather will continue to vary.”

He added the precipitation levels have been very low, and the dry weather is expected to continue in the coming weeks unless weather patterns significantly change.

The weather agency also lifted the Smoky Skies Bulletin for the Okanagan Tuesday morning, after being in place off of Monday.

“In terms of air quality, there are wildfires in the vicinity, there’s quite a few to the east actually, but because of the wind field and the pattern over coming days they will be more streamlined towards Alberta, because we’ll generally have a westerly flow,” Dosanjh explained.

“But nevertheless, there still are some fires to the west kind of closer to Highway 1, as well as the Washington State fires, so if you were to see kind of a more southerly flow persist, I would imagine you could see some possible haze affect the higher atmosphere.”

Though the heat warning and smoke bulletin were lifted, he advised people still monitor the air quality and take steps to ensure they are not inhaling particulate matter.

by Liam Verster

Heat and smoke advisories lifted for the Okanagan, records broken during heat wave

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