City set to sizzle with first heat wave of summer
Temperatures expected to reach low 30s on the coast, with 40s possible further inland
Get ready to plot the quickest route to your local swimming pool or walk-in freezer — this weekend is shaping up to be a sizzler across southern B.C.
Parts of the province are expected to flirt with or break temperature records on Saturday and Sunday, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald.
“We’re going to see the first mini heat wave of the summer. There’s a massive ridge of high pressure that’s going to build over the coast, and the resulting southerly circulation is going to bring lots of warm air northward across the border,” MacDonald said.
“We’re going to reach into the low 30s on the coast, and potentially even the 40s inland, over the Interior.”
He expects a special weather statement will be issued in the next couple of days warning of the heat wave, and an extreme heat alert may be necessary to caution people to stay hydrated and avoid the sun during peak hours.
MacDonald said at Vancouver International Airport, the mean temperature for June so far is 16.8 C, compared with an average of 15.7 for the month. The record high is 18 C.
“We’re still 1.2 degrees away from the all-time record, but with this heat wave coming up there’s a good chance that we’ll approach that,” he said.
It’s far more likely that the Interior could see record highs for June, MacDonald added.
The mean temperature in Kamloops this month to June 22 was 20 C, MacDonald said, compared with a normal temperature of 18.4 C and a record monthly maximum of 21.6 C.
“With this heat wave,” he said, “they’ll hit 40 degrees on Sunday in Kamloops and that will bring the monthly mean temperature up quite a bit.”
He said Kelowna and Cranbrook could also see record highs for June.
The hottest spots in the province this weekend will likely be places like Osoyoos, where temperatures as high as 38 C are expected on Sunday, and in Lytton and Lillooet, where highs of 40 C are in the forecast for Saturday.
But MacDonald said the bigger story on the south coast is the lack of rainfall. May 2015 was the driest since records began in 1937, with just 4.2 millimetres of rain compared to the typical 65 mm.
At the Vancouver airport in May, “we only got 4.2 mm compared to the normal of 66 mm. So far this month we’ve only had 10.8 mm compared to a normal of 54 mm. If we hold steady with those numbers we’d have the third-driest June on record,” he said. “This creates a prolonged significant dry spell.”
On a hot summer day in Vancouver, it can get “incredibly hot” beside the grill inside one of the city’s many food trucks, according to Paul Fenton, the owner of Feastro the Rolling Bistro.
Thankfully, “they’re surprisingly efficient in terms of letting the air flow through. There’s skylights, there’s doors, windows,” he said.
Our furry friends can also suffer in the hot weather, and an Abbotsford woman is doing something about that.
“It’s a swimming pool where you can come with your dog or your dog’s friends and swim with your dog outside,” Bonnie Judd said of her small business called Canine Fun Pool, which started up three weeks ago.
“It’s an above-ground pool with a 40-foot running dock on it so the dogs can run and jump, and it’s pretty popular. On weekends we’re probably doing 20 dogs a day.”
Judd said it costs $25 an hour and the dogs are having a blast.
“They love it,” she said. “If you just want to come with your dogs and have fun, come on down.”
Once the heat wave breaks early next week, parts of the province could see thunder and lightning. After an abnormally dry couple of months, those storms have the potential to spark more wildfires, MacDonald said.
Metro Vancouver staff are keeping a close eye on weather conditions in local parks and the fire danger rating has been set at high across the region. Unsupervised fires have been banned, although barbecues and campfires in designated campgrounds are still permitted.
“Staff are constantly patrolling and keeping the public educated on fire conditions,” said Doug Petersen of Metro Vancouver regional parks.