Kamloops and Kelowna heading towards driest year on record

While Environment Canada hasn’t released its year-end data yet, but it’s clear that both Kamloops and Kelowna had their driest years on record.

Kelowna had its driest 11 months of the year at the end of November and it has been even drier in December.

On average 32.6 millimetres of precipitation falls in Kelowna in December. This year only 17.2 mm were recorded to date and virtually no more precipitation is forecast for the rest of the year.

It looks like Kelowna will record 147.5 mm of precipitation this year.

The previous driest year in Kelowna was 2020 (at least to the end of November). Because of higher than average precipitation in December that year, the city finished with 175.3 mm, or almost 28 mm more than in 2023.

READ MORE: All drought records for Kelowna, Kamloops set to be broken this year

Kamloops has recorded 146 mm of precipitation so far this year, with no more in the forecast.

The city's previous driest year was 1979 with 154.8 mm.


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics

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