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 ridge of high pressure is building 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 four days of warmth for the Prince George area and nothing but sunshine and clear skies – good news for comet watchers.
Those clouds around the city will burn off this afternoon and the thermometer is expected to hit 23 C today and 27 C on Sunday, with an overnight low of 8C. Monday’s high is predicted to be 25 C, followed by a 23 C day on Tuesday. A few clouds are in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday but it will stay above average temperature-wise with highs of 24C and 27 C respectively. A cloudy Friday is forecast but the high of 24C is still two degrees above normal for this time of year.
“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, reached its closest approach to Earth on Thursday but will continue to be visible 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.
