A scalding summer
Penticton is parched after 57 days without any measurable rain, and the record-breaking streak doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon. The previous mark of 50 consecutive dry days was set in 1957, when there was no rain recorded from Aug. 12 through Sept. 30, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Alyssa Charbonneau.
This year’s dry spell began on June 29. Since then, there have been traces of rain recorded, but it hasn’t added up to more than the 0.2 millimetres in a day required for it to be measurable, said Charbonneau. Relief is not in the clouds, either. As of Thursday, the weather agency was calling for a 30 per cent chance of rain next Tuesday night, but there was no heavy precipitation in the forecast. Furthermore, September and October tend to be even drier than August.
Charbonneau said there’s no specific weather phenomenon to blame for the bone-dry summer.
“It’s been more just a really persistent ridge of high pressure that’s been over us, driving the storm patterns up into the northern part of British Columbia,” she said.
Thanks to a wet spring, however, the drought threat is much lower than in recent years, according to the Okanagan Basin Water Board.
It issued a bulletin earlier this week that stated Kalamalka, Okanagan and Osoyoos lakes are all just now approaching average levels after flood conditions earlier this summer, while most aquifers are at or above historic levels.
As a result, the B.C. government has set drought response measures at Level 2, meaning consumers are encouraged to voluntarily cut use by 10 per cent.
Last summer, the measures were elevated to Level 4, which led the City of Penticton to ask residents to reduce their use by 30 per cent.