Weather Appreciation

[Glacier]

For 7 days now, the temperature has not gotten below 20 degrees at night at my place.

Do you have a max/min thermometer? There is no way on earth that you've gone 7 days without getting below 20 degrees. Lillooet and Osoyoos only got down to 21 yesterday, but before that everyone including these hot spots were below 20 most days.

As for rain, it is pounding rain up in Prince George where the smoke is so thick that the streetlights didn't turn off in the morning. We have a chance of rain over the next few days, but it looks like the major system will be to the north of us (quite typical for this time of year).

[Glacier]

Lady tehMa, here is a graph that shows where the heat was centred for this past heatwave. As you can see the area around Prince George was 7 degrees above normal. We were more like 5 degrees above normal.

[Lady tehMa]

That's interesting - what causes that?

[Glacier]

High pressure. Where the pressure is highest, the heating is the highest because air is forced down to the ground more readily, and as air moves downward, it warms. Now this same high pressure system has moved to the south and east, so the prairies are warming up while the central part of BC is cooling off.

[Cumungala]

Do you have a max/min thermometer? There is no way on earth that you've gone 7 days without getting below 20 degrees. Lillooet and Osoyoos only got down to 21 yesterday, but before that everyone including these hot spots were below 20 most days.

I've got a digital thermometer/atomic clock and it has a small receiver that you place outside. Its located in a shady part of my yard away from any potential heat or heat radiation sources. It has a max/min feature for both the temperature and humidity that I have programmed to reset everyday at midnight. Due to the heat, I have been checking it fairly often over the past few days to see how hot it was getting, so I was also able to keep track of the minimum temperature for each day. I live close to Downtown Kelowna and the high temperatures at night are probably due all the city heat and being close to the lake. I could sure feel it though. On Tuesday, the temperature was still 30 degrees at 11PM! Wednesday morning got down to a low of to 23.4 degrees. It has been quite uncomfortable to sleep in and I hope it cools down starting tonight.

I find that central parts of Kelowna are starting to develop a bit of an urban heat island. Last winter's coldest temperature was -14.5 at my house, but it was at least -18 everywhere else in the valley, even the South Okanagan.

[Queen K]

We've got light rain downtown!

Now that I appreciate.

[Glacier]

It looks like it's trying to rain at my house too. Did you guys see the pictures from Prince George yesterday with the smoke and rain combining to turn the city dark?

The first picture shows what Prince George looked like at 6 am, and the 2nd dark one shows the same spot almost 3 hours later. Notice that the streetlights turned on.

[Glacier]

I've got a digital thermometer/atomic clock and it has a small receiver that you place outside.

It could be urban heat island, or it could be site selection or thermometer calibration. You will record higher lows if the thermometer is attached to a tree or deck than if it is hanging inside a fan aspirated white box.

Remember there graph from the previous page?

Well, here is the same graph except it is now showing the lows. In both cases the places are listed across the bottom from warmest to coolest. Notice how Pemberton is no longer one of the hottest spots when we look at nighttime temperatures.

[Glacier]

Since we all know that Kamloops was the warmest since 1971, I thought it would be interesting to see how far back we'd have to look to find a hotter temperature in the Okanagan.

It turns out that this was the hottest heatwave in the Okanagan since 1998 to 2009(depending on where you live). Osoyoos was 40 last week, which was the hottest temperature since July 2006. For Kelowna the 37.1 recorded last week in Kelowna was the hottest temperature since the 27.4 recorded on August 1st 2009. For Vernon last week's 38.6 was the hottest temperature in Vernon since 1998.

[Glacier]

There are two other weather stations in Kelowna besides the airport. The one at UBCO was 38.9 last week, which is one of the hottest temperatures recorded BC this year:

1) Ashcroft..............41.7.....15th
2) Hedley................41.5.....13th
3) Hedley................41.5.....16th
4) Lillooet..............41.4.....15th
5) Ashcroft..............41.3.....13th
6) Lillooet..............41.1.....13th
7) Lytton................41.1.....13th
8) Hedley................41.....15th
9) Ashcroft..............40.7.....14th
10) Kamloops..............40.7.....13th
11) Lillooet..............40.6.....14th
12) Lytton................40.6.....12th
13) Ashcroft..............40.4.....12th
14) Pemberton.............40.1.....13th
15) Osoyoos...............40.....13th
16) Osoyoos...............39.8.....16th
17) Lytton................39.8.....14th
18) Lillooet..............39.7.....12th
19) Hedley................39.5.....12th
20) Kamloops..............39.5.....15th
21) Osoyoos...............39.4.....15th
22) Kamloops..............39.3.....12th
23) Pemberton.............39.3.....15th
24) Pemberton.............39.1.....12th
25) Pemberton.............39.....14th
26) Kelowna...............38.9.....13th
27) Lillooet..............38.9.....16th
28) Osoyoos...............38.9.....12th

P.S. It's only supposed to 19 degrees tomorrow with rain.

[Glacier]

Tomorrow could be very wet...

11:21 AM PDT Tuesday 22 July 2014
Special weather statement in effect for:

• 100 Mile
• Arrow Lakes - Slocan Lake
• Boundary
• Cariboo
• East Columbia
• East Kootenay
• Elk Valley
• Fraser Canyon
• Kootenay Lake
• Nicola
• North Columbia
• North Thompson
• Okanagan Valley
• Shuswap
• Similkameen
• South Thompson
• West Columbia
• West Kootenay

Potential for 25 to 50 mm of rain with thunderstorms Wednesday through Thursday.

An area of low pressure crossing the British Columbia Interior will produce heavy showers with embedded thunderstorms beginning Wednesday. The thunderstorms may produce locally heavy rainfall with amounts ranging between 25 to 50 mm and have the potential to fall in short periods of time. The exact locations of the thunderstorms are uncertain but have the potential to become severe producing lightning wind gusts and hail. The heavy precipitation and thunderstorms will persist Wednesday through Thursday.

The public is advised to monitor future forecasts and warnings as warnings may be required or extended.

Please monitor the latest forecasts and warnings from Environment Canada at http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca.

[GenesisGT]

The difference between an automatic weather station and actual weather. Note there is thunder and lightning in the area indicating convective cloud such as, cumulonimbus, and tower cumulus, while the auto station is reporting sky clear. Photo from the weather camera at the Kelowna airport.

[Lady tehMa]

That was a nice thunderstorm we had - I rather like those (even with the power failure). According to the Castanet forecast, we're looking at sun after today. Did the rain help the area? Are we on track for precipitation, or are we low?

[Glacier]

I think we got half of the normal monthly total yesterday, and more today. Some places got snow yesterday though...

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/07/30-c ... ns-photos/

Thanks to the rain, the fire danger rating has improved.

July 24th

July 23rd

[Glacier]

Here are the precipitation totals for the past two days. Notice that Kamloops wasn't that bad. Lillooet got almost two months worth of rain. Ashcroft got a month and half worth.

CITY................PRECIPITATION (MM)
Port Mellon..............86.8
Lillooet.................50.2
Howe Sound...............46.4
Powell River.............44
West Vancouver...........44
Hope.....................43.5
Clinton..................43
Pemberton................41.3
Salmon Arm...............40.7
Quesnel..................39.8
Abbotsford...............33.3
Williams Lake............32.4
Secelt...................32.2
Kelowna..................30.8
Dawson Creek.............29.6
Blue River...............28.4
Whistler.................28.2
Squamish.................26.6
Ashcroft.................26.2
Kamloops.................25.8
Pitt Meadows.............25.7
Osoyoos..................24.7
Vernon...................24.1
Comox....................24
Qualicum Beach...........23
Revelstoke...............22.3
White Rock...............21.6
Vancouver................21.3
Summerland...............20.6
Penticton................20.2
Ballenas Island..........19.8
Princeton................17.4
Yoho National Park.......17
Lytton...................14.5
Point Atkinson...........14.3
Port Alberni.............14.2
Vancouver (YVR)..........13.6
Merritt..................13.2
Estevan Point............11.6
Saturna Island...........10.8
Warfield/Trail...........9.6
Entrance Island..........7.8
Solander Island..........7.8
Puntzi Mountain..........6.4
Cathetral Point..........6.2
Port Hardy...............5.8
Prince George............5.8
Nelson...................5.7
Tatlayoko Lake...........5.5
Fort St John.............5.4
Malahat..................5.2
Rose Spit................5.1
Esquimalt................5
Sandspit.................5
Victoria (YYJ)...........4.8
Kindukun Rocks...........4
North Cowichan...........3.7
Victoria.................3.6
Cranbrook................3.4
Creston..................2.8
Sartine Island...........2.2
Fanny Island.............1.8
Herbert Island...........1.8
Sheringham Point.........1.6
Cape St James............1.5
Langara..................0.6
Holland Rock.............0.4
Dease Lake...............0.3
Smithers.................0.3
Bonilla Island...........0
Burns Lake...............0
Fort Nelson..............0
Fort St James............0
MacKenzie................0
Masset...................0
Ootsa Lake...............0
Terrace..................0