The City of Kamloops has expanded the hours of its cooling centre downtown until later in the evening.
Community Development Manager Carmin Mazzotta says it will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Sandman Centre
He says it had been open until 7 p.m. but the city decided to expand that, with temperatures staying extremely hot late in the evening.
“We’re being adaptive and flexible to make sure there is that place to provide relief from the heat for folks to come into the Sandman Centre and grab a bottle of water and walk around the main concourse, or just sit down and cool off.”
There’s a limit of 50 people in the cooling centre because of COVID-19 protocols. Mazzotta says it’s been busy but says no one has had to be turned away.
With limits to indoor gatherings being lifted on Thursday, Mazzotta says the city will adapt as needed to follow public health guidance for capacity at the cooling centre.
Mazzotta says the cooling centre will stay open until at least the weekend.
“As long as there are temperature 35 degrees or higher during the day and above 18 degrees at night, the cooling centre will remain open. Because that’s really the criteria used to determine a heat event,” he says.
“The forecast is looking like that will likely continue through possibly Saturday, before we start to see more of a cooling trend.”
Meanwhile, Mazzotta also says the Southwest Community Church in Aberdeen has opened a cooling centre, which is available today and tomorrow from noon to 8 p.m. He says like the Sandman Centre, the church will also have all COVID-19 protocols in place; it will have WiFi, air conditioning and free water bottles.
Kamloops reached all-time temperature records on Sunday, at 44.0 degrees Celsius, and again yesterday at 45.8 C. There is a forecast high of 46 C in the Tournament Capital today, with highs of 43 C tomorrow and 38 C for both Thursday and Friday.
Before this week, 45.8 C would smashed the all-time temperature record in Canada, which was 45.0 C dating back to 1937. But that mark of 45.0 was broken four times yesterday by B.C. Interior communities, including Kamloops (45.8 C), Lillooet (45.6 C), Ashcroft (46.4 C) and Lytton, which set a new national temperature record of 47.9 C.