The hottest stretch of the year is coming to a close. “Typically Kelowna sees 11 days(in July) above 30 degrees Celsius. This year, July 2018, 18 days,” says Environment Canada, Meteorologist Matt MacDonald. “We’ll definitely be flirting with one of the top 3 hottest Julys on record.”
In the past 2 weeks alone we’ve experienced the 3 hottest days of the year in Kelowna. This past Monday, July 30th we hit 37 degrees, while Sunday tied with July 17th as the hottest days of the year at 37.3 degrees.
MacDonald says a new weather pattern is coming tomorrow, and it could include the return of thunderstorms Wednesday evening, and small doses of rain for the rest of the week. “I think we’ll have to wait until Thursday to see any showers and we’re not talking biblical amounts of precipitation here, we’re talking like a few millimetres. Friday is the best chance of showers and it may be 2 to 3 millimetres, at most.”
With a new air mass coming into the Okanagan Valley some of the stagnant smokey air is expected to clear out, while MacDonald is quick to point out, new smoke is continually being added to the area with still-burning wildfires.
If there’s one silver lining to our grey skyline, it’s that this July heat wave could’ve been worse without it. Macdonald says, “While this air mass is extremely hot, the forest fire smoke is limiting the amount of solar radiation, and keeping the temperatures down a degree or two.”