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WATCH: Are we in for another scorching summer?

Longer term weather report points to a return to normal temperatures.

According to AccuWeather’s latest outlook for summer, there won’t be a repeat of last year’s massive heat wave.

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson told Kelowna10, the reason we saw the extreme heat dome last year was because La Niña was weakening with warmer ocean water temperatures. This year it’s more moderate, bringing cooler ocean temperatures which should equal a more normal summer.

“When you add all this up, this tells us we’re probably going to have less heat this summer across British Columbia,” he said. “Certainly, some hot spells, but not like last year. And we’re going to deal with a little more moisture.”

La Niña weather patterns influence the position of the jet stream over North America, and while things won’t be as hot, it will mean more precipitation.

Anderson said we are in our third La Niña in a row which is a rare occurrence and means a stronger Pacific jet stream will be more directed into B.C. which results in storms and leads to cooler weather patterns in the province.

“It doesn’t always work that way, but that seems to be the trend we see with La Niña conditions,” he said. “So, we should see stormier, and certainly cooler conditions in the warmer months for western parts of Canada.”

With a later start to spring this year, the snowpack is melting later. However, Anderson does not see any significant threats of flooding and expects a more consistent river and stream flow through the summer.

“The threats of getting these big wet Pacific systems coming to Southern B.C. is certainly starting to diminish,” he said. “So, the threats of widespread stream and river flooding is going down at this point.”

Last year, the Okanagan recorded record breaking temperatures throughout the summer, with daytime highs reaching over 40 C.

Published 2022-05-25 by Connor Chan

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