It may not be much of a surprise, but the Okanagan had the smokiest summer on record.
While there's no data for Kelowna specifically, Environment Canada reports 12% of the summer was smoky in Penticton, beating the previous record of 7% set in 2015, and 33% of the summer was smoky in Kamloops, almost doubling the 2003 record of 15%.
“We had to go as far as the coast, which was a completely different regime or way out to the east Kootenys before we actually saw it not be record breaking,” says Meteorologist Doug Lundquist “And Kelowna is right in the middle of that zone.”
Although the record breaking wildfire season is to blame, a ride of high pressure that built over during the summer contributed to the smoke lingering for longer.
“So the problem is usually we get every week or at least every 2 weeks a bit of a cold front with some showers, a thunder on it, to clean things up, clear the air out, it stirs it up, the wind blows it away,” says Lundquist “We really only had maybe one good cold front that went through in the middle of July or just after the middle of the July.”
Lundquist says we're not out of the woods yet as smoke may make a comeback next week with warmer temperatures, but with less wildfires burning, it's not expected to be nearly as long lasting.