It’s like the lid on a boiling pot. It’s going to keep getting hotter until this dome of high pressure moves out of the B.C. Interior.
Environment Canada Meteorologist Lisa Ervin says we should expect to keep setting record temperatures for the next few days.
She blames a very strong ridge of high pressure that has brought a hot air mass up from the south and then parked itself over the province. “When you get a multi-day event like this, each subsequent day of sunshine adds to each daily temperature.”
The ridge is set to slowly start drifting eastward into the Prairies.
“As it does so, it’s going to drag this hot air mass east of the province. So, we will start to see temperatures coming down, still into the high 30s, but at least out of the 40s as we get into the Thursday, Friday and the weekend forecast time period,” says Ervin.
Whether that will trigger dry lightning is still up in the air.
“With the ridge of high pressure moving off, the atmosphere is slowly going to destabilize,” explains Ervin. “All that means is the chance of thunderstorms becomes more and more likely as we get into the mid or latter part of this week. However, where exactly those thunderstorms will form relies on the analysis of very fine-scale weather features that become more clear as we enter that 24-48 hour time period.” She notes storms are not likely, today or tomorrow, but convection could start sprouting up into Wednesday-Thursday for parts of the Interior.
How rare is this?
“Forecasting highs of 40 degrees, not just within the Okanagan, but widespread temperatures of 40 degrees across much of the southern Interior is a significant event for British Columbia, especially since it’s been lasting for several days,” says Ervin.
