Dress the kids warmly for Halloween in Okanagan, Kamloops

While snow and rain are hammering the Thompson and Okanagan regions today, that’s all going to disappear by the weekend.

The sun is expected to shine all weekend, including for Halloween on Sunday, but the temperature is going to fall significantly.

“It’s going to be dead calm,” Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist told iNFOnews.ca today, Oct. 28.

“As long as you have warm clothes on it will feel more pleasant than the average Halloween when it’s raining and close to zero and windy. It will be cool and crisp and getting close to frost at the end of trick or treating time.”

READ MORE: Winter driving on Coquihalla, Okanagan Connector; snowfall warnings issued

A storm system moving through the province is dumping lots of snow at higher elevations and rain in the valleys today.

More rain is expected later today for a total of 15 to 20 mm in the Okanagan and a bit less in Kamloops, but the precipitation should tapper off through to tomorrow.

That amount of precipitation does create some concerns for areas that were hit by wildfires last summer.

“I worry about the White Rock Lake fire and the hydrophobic soils,” Lundquist said. “Soils don’t really absorb water after a bad fire so I’m a little bit worried about possible impacts from debris flows or floods along the creeks or some flashing coming down there.”

READ MORE: Spooky Halloween happenings ongoing in the Thompson-Okanagan

The Environment Canada forecast calls for lows around -4 Celsius overnight Friday in the Okanagan and down to -5 C overnight Saturday and Sunday with daytime highs only reaching 4 C.

For Kamloops, the forecast highs and lows are about one degree warmer.

But, Lundquist notes, the forecast tends to be a couple of degrees higher and lower than what actually happens, so highs in the Okanagan are more likely to be around 6 C and lows only -2 C.

Frost has already hit the region with a low of -3.5 C in Kelowna on Oct. 12 and -2.5 C in Kamloops on Oct. 14.

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