Environment Canada says the daytime high in Kamloops hit 28.2 C yesterday, July 21, ending a stretch of 26 days where the temperature crossed the 30 C mark.
“Of course that stretch includes the extreme heat event where we got into the mid-40s towards the end of June and then even as that extreme heat event departed, we were left with temperatures that were 5 to 10 degrees above normal for the first three weeks of July,” Meteorologist Lisa Erven told NL News.
The normal daytime high for a July 22 in Kamloops is 29 C.
“That extreme heat event was historical, it was widespread throughout most of B.C. with communities breaking and then re-breaking daily temperature records, and in some places, breaking the all time national heat record multiple days in a row,” she added.
Erven says that record heatwave led to this past month being the hottest June on record in Kamloops, with records going back to 1892.
Prior to yesterday, the last day in Kamloops below 30 degrees was June 24, where it got to a high of 29.8 C.
So far in July there have been 20 days with temperatures above 30 C in Kamloops, which Erven says is well above the average of 12.8 days in a month.
“Last year, in July 2020, we only saw about 12 days over 30 C, so pretty much bang on average, and those hot days occurred in the second half of the month which is pretty typical as when you get more and more into summer, those temperatures tend to creep up higher and higher,” Erven said.
“2019 was very similar, about 12 days over 30 C, again the latter half of the month. 2018 saw a few more with 16 days above 30 but again mostly in the latter half of the month, but there were a few in early July of that year. If we go all the way back to 2017 though, it was another fairly significantly hot July with 25 days over 30 degrees.”
Environment Canada is calling for a day time high of 28 C today and 29 C tomorrow, before returning to 33 C on Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures at that level into early next week as well.
For the latest Kamloops forecast, go here.
