The City of Kamloops has once again opened the concourse of the Sandman Centre as a cooling centre.

It comes as Environment Canada has issued a heat warning for much of southern B.C, with day time temperatures in the Kamloops area expected to be in the mid-to-high 30s until Thursday.

As has been the case in the past, the Sandman Centre will be open between noon until 8pm until the end of the heat wave.

A heat warning is issued in the Kamloops area when there is a 35-18-35 forecast – a daytime high of at least 35 C followed by a night time low of at least 18 C, for two days in a row.

While not as extreme as the heat dome of 2021, Global BC meteorologist Mark Madryga says its going to be a hot week.

“There are several factors that will hold the temperatures back from what I consider once in a lifetime readings that we did have in June of 2021. You know Kamloops at 47.5 and Lytton at 49.5. I’d be totally, totally shocked if I ever saw that again in my lifetime,” Madryga said.

“That said, we’re going to get close to records for this time of year, which are about 37, 38. I see back on Aug 11, 1981, it hit 38.6 in Kamloops, so I mean this kind of heat is not unprecedented, its just kind of rare to get it for an extended period this late in the season.”

Madryga says one of those reasons why it won’t be as hot this time around is the days are shorter and the nights are longer in August compared to June.

“The nights are longer at this time of year by I guess about an hour and a half, so you have an hour and half less daylight to really heat up,” he said.

But Madryga says the places in the South Okanagan could still see temperatures into the 40s during this heat wave.

For more on the City of Kamloops’ heat response plan, go here.