Summer-like weather in southern Interior this week

KELOWNA – It’s time to get out the sunscreen and find a beach as the early start to summer in the southern Interior continues this week.

Environment Canada Meteorologist Doug Lundquist says flooding issues should be relatively few and localized in nature this week as temperatures are expected to average at least 10 degrees above normal for the next four days,

“That can change but right now we’re looking at above average temperatures of 30 Celsius when our normal high temperatures are usually 21 C or 22 C,” Lundquist says.

“Weather-wise, the freshet is winding down,” Lundquist says, adding no major organized storms are forecast for the next 10 days, and any rain that does fall would only create localized flooding.

Temperatures are expected to cool down by five degrees or so on the weekend with highs in the mid-20s.

Lundquist says the only other forecast weather change is the onset of thundershowers later in the week.

“It’s almost June, technically that’s the month of thunderstorms,” he says.

The extended forecast is calling for a 60 to 70 per cent chance of a hot summer. Lundquist says the latter half of May and June is usually the southern Interior’s monsoon season, but that weather pattern that would bring the rain is nowhere to be seen yet.

“We need that period of rain to make it through summer. It’s still early, but there are no upper lows in sight, although that could change through June,” he says. “Actually, the perfect scenario would be a couple more weeks of this weather before a change to some rain prior to nice, hot summer."

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