Warmer than normal May expected in Kamloops, Okanagan after a dry, cool April

The month of April failed to bring much in the way of showers to the Okanagan or Kamloops last month.

Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist says April weather statistics reveal it was a dry and cool throughout the region.

“It was about a degree colder than average in the Okanagan and around a degree and a half cooler in Kamloops,” Lundquist says.

Penticton, Vernon and Kamloops had anywhere from a quarter to a third of the normal precipitation for April. No precipitation statistics are available for Kelowna.

Vernon’s average temperature for the month was 7.9 Celsius compared to the normal 8.7 C, 0.8 C below normal. Kelowna’s average April temperature of 8.3 was 0.8 degrees below the normal average of 9.1 C, while Penticton’s average of 8 C last month was 1.1 degree below the normal average of 9.1 C.

Kamloops finished April with an average temperature of 8.3 C compared to 9.9 C, 1.6 degrees cooler than normal.

The rain failed to fall last month as well, with Kamloops receiving only five millimetres of the 14 mm the city normally receives. Penticton saw only seven mm of rain last month compared to the 26 mm it normally receives, while in Vernon seven mm fell when 28 mm usually falls.

“It’s not really unusual to see a dry April, spring and fall are generally the two driest seasons of the year,” Lundquist says. He says the Thompson-Okanagan usually sees significant rain from mid-May into June.

“March and April are generally dry months. This year, they were even drier,” he says.

“We would have liked to have seen more rain from the fire prevention perspective, but for the spring freshet, it was perfect.”

Lundquist says the seasonal outlook for the southwest Interior, including Kamloops and the Okanagan, calls for a high likelihood of a hotter than average May, June and July.

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