Nice weather we’re having, for June
Finally, a Juneuary we can enjoy.
The term may have been coined to describe an unseasonably chilly month that includes the first day of summer.
But it also seems an apt description for the first full month of the 2020-21 winter that has, so far, been remarkably mild and snow-free.
Including the sunny weekend just past, the average high in Kelowna this January has been 4.6 C, four degrees above normal. In fact, temperatures have risen above freezing every day so far this month.
Overnight lows have averaged –1.5 C, almost five degrees warmer than normal.
That has made for a mean temperature of 1.6 C so far this month. The warmest January ever in Kelowna was in 2006, when the mean temperature was 1.7 C. The second warmest was in 1954, when the mean temperature was 1.4 C.
This month’s warmest day was last Wednesday, when the temperature reached nearly 10 C. That wasn’t much off the coldest June day last year, when the temperature reached only 13 C.
Snowfall usually totals 20 centimetres in Kelowna in January, but there’s been less than seven millimetres of precipitation so far this month, Environment Canada says.
Cloud and evaporation from Okanagan Lake often get trapped in the Valley during the winter, with the low-angled sun not producing enough strength to burn off the grey skies.
Because of that, Kelowna is the sixthgloomiest city in Canada during the winter, with just 154 hours of total sunshine, including 39 hours in January.
Even dreary Vancouver gets 202 hours of winter sunshine, and Calgary, the country’s brightest wintertime city, gets 366 hours of sun.
Environment Canada does not track daily hours of sunshine for Kelowna. But it’s been a bright month so far, and The Weather Network predicts at least some sun on eight of the 13 days remaining in the month.
Some cooler days are also ahead, however, with highs of only a few degrees below freezing until month end.