Rain in forecast won’t provide much relief for Okanagan, Kamloops

The brief period of heat is expected to break by this weekend with rain in the forecast for the Okanagan and Kamloops.

The change from the 30 degree daytime high temperatures are expected to begin to moderate overnight Thursday with light rain forecast through the weekend and into next week for the Thompson-Okanagan region, according to Environment Canada.

The weather office is calling for highs in the low 20s with a clouds and a chance of showers beginning Friday in Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon with the cooler, damper weather hanging on through the weekend into Tuesday next week.

Environment Canada meteorologist Jennifer Kowal told iNFOnews.ca that a weather system is going to sweep across the province from the Pacific and settle in Alberta, but the Thompson-Okanagan is just going to get the fringes of the system.

“We’re expecting to have showers basically all day starting on Thursday night and continuing all day Friday,” she said.

There’s a chance of thunderstorms but Kowal said those would likely be away from the valley bottoms and closer to the Monashees and Boundary. The rain isn’t expected to be heavy, less than 10 millimetres spread out over the weekend.

Kowal said it isn’t likely to have a major impact on the drought conditions as the province exits a heat wave that broke numerous daily temperature records.

“The Thompson-Okanagan just gets swept over,” she said. “Everybody can use really every millimeter of rain we can get at this point.”

Environment Canada is expecting cooler temperatures, around the seasonal daily high of 24 C, to stick around until July 5.

“It’s a bit cooler than it has been,” she said. “It’s more of a return to what we consider to be seasonal.”