Bring on the heat.
After one of the coolest, cloudiest and rainiest Julys in recent memory, summer is finally coming to Prince George and most of the Central Interior. A strong ridge of high pressure has moved in over the southwest coast and that will bring sunny skies and warm temperatures to the city.
It’s not going to be blazing hot, like it is right now in the Okanagan and other southern regions, but Environment Canada is predicting at least five days of above-average warmth for the Prince George area with sunshine and mostly clear skies – good news for comet watchers.
Those clouds over the city will burn off later this morning and the thermometer is expected to hit 27C today and 28C on Monday, with overnight lows of 11C the next two nights. A mix of sun and cloud is predicted for Tuesday but it will stay warm, with a high of 24 expected. More sun is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, with predicted highs of 26C and 28C.
Showers are expected on the weekend with a 60 per cent chance on Friday and a high of 26C, dropping to a 40 per cent likelihood of rain on Saturday and a high of 23C.
“It’s been pretty cool and rainy for a lot of places across B.C. and we’re in a transition now where we’re starting to see some heat and some sun coming, but more to the southern half of the province,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Alyssa Charbonneau.
“Further north in B.C., there’s still going to be some cloud and it’s not going to be as hot as what we’re expecting in the south, and the Prince George area is kind of in the middle of that. While it might not be heat warnings or anything like that, it’s certainly going to be a little bit warmer with a couple days above normal going into this week.”
Heat advisories have been issued by Environment Canada for southern inland areas extending north in the Interior as far as 100 Mile House until Wednesday, when the ridge of high pressure begins to break down. The high for Penticton Monday and Tuesday will be 35C or 36C with overnight lows in the high teens.
The city has had 98.2 millimetres of rain in July, well above the 60-65mm average. Friday’s high only reached 14C and the day brought 4.1 mm of rain. The average high is 22.6 C and average low is 9 C.
“It’s certainly seemed like we haven’t had much of break between these systems, a lot of troughs coming across, a lot thundershowers, a lot of showers and a lot of cloud, so it’s going to be a nice break for the next few days,” said Charbonneau.
“We’ll still have quite a bit of sun at least through the middle of the week. Then we’ll start to see some cloud creeping back in but overall, not a bad week of a forecast, compared to what we’ve been seeing.”
The comet NEOWISE, named after the space telescope (Near Earth Object Wide-Field Survey Explorer) used to discover it in late March, reached its closest approach to Earth on Wednesday but will continue to be visible for the rest of July in the west-northwest sky just after sunset. The five-kilometre-wide comet won’t make its next appearance to earthlings for another 6,800 years.
