Pineapple Express to bring blast of warm air to Southern Interior

An “atmospheric river” or Pineapple Express is making its way to B.C., bringing rain to the coast and balmy temperatures to the southern Interior.

Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist says the weather systems are famous for bringing lots of moisture to the Lower Mainland, but generally don't do anything in the Okanagan but make us warm.

“We’ll get some rain but nothing like the coast. We’re in a dry belt,” he says.

The rain is expected to start in the Okanagan on Thursday night and on Friday night in Kamloops, with only a few millimetres expected on the valley bottoms.

Motorists will need to watch the weather for conditions on the highways this weekend, as the warmer weather and rain will bring on greater risk of avalanche.

“There is a cold front coming on Saturday which could change the rain to snow at higher elevations,” Lundquist says.

Kamloops could reach a high of 13 Celsius on Saturday, with temperatures of 6 C in the Okanagan, although he says that might be short-changing the valley.

“It could be almost as warm as Kamloops,” he says.

The normal high and low temperatures for this time of year is 1 C and -6 C for Kamloops and -1 C and -7 C for the Okanagan.

“Saturday’s cold front will be noticeable simply because it will have been so warm,” Lundquist says.

“It’s not Arctic air, and will barely get us back down to normal highs and lows."

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