CLIMATE CHANGE: Okanagan has steadily heated up over the last few decades

If you think it’s getting hotter every summer in the Okanagan, you’re right.

The Okanagan Basin Water Board crunched the numbers for the past 100 years, using the 1951-1980 time period as a baseline.

It found that, from 1991 to 2020, the average temperature for almost every week was higher than the baseline and, over the past 30 years, the average summer temperature was more than one degree Celsius higher than the baseline.

READ MORE: Drought deepens in Kamloops and the Okanagan

The report, which went to the Okanagan Basin Water Board on Aug. 1, includes charts showing how many days were above 30 C each summer in the three major Okanagan cities.

“Although, in the past, there were years with long hot spells (days over 30 C), these consistently occurred during El Nino years,” the report says. “Now, hot spells also take place in La Nina years, which was not the case in the past.

“Overall, there is a clear shift to warmer average temperatures and the number of extremely hot days is increasing for the Okanagan. These observed changes in temperature have significant and wide-ranging implications for human health, ecosystem health, infrastructure, and extreme events like fire.”

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