Heat Warning Issued for 100 Mile, Williams Lake

The heat is back.

Both 100 Mile and Williams Lake are in a heat warning.

“The end of July we saw temperatures creep up above 30 degrees and here we are back again with the next heat wave on track,” says meteorologist Lisa Ervin with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“Very similar temperatures expected this week with highs getting up to 31 for Wednesday, 34 for Thursday.”

Ervin says if Williams Lake does hit 34 degrees on Thursday it would be the hottest temperature seen so far this summer and would be likely to set a new record.

Things will not cool down until at least Friday when a vigorous cold front sweeps across the province resulting increased cloudiness.

A special air quality statement due to the wildfire smoke being observed throughout the province is also in effect.

“Concentrations of smoke can vary over short distances, but we’re seeing quite elevated concentrations around the Williams Lake area,” says Ervin.

“Under this ridge of high air pressure what ends up happening is that wildfire smoke is trapped near the surface of the earth, it really has nowhere to disperse to. Until that ridge breaks down later in the week with that cold front we’re not really going to see much change in conditions over the next couple of days.”

Hot and Dry July 2018

Temperatures last month according to Ervin were warmer than normal with the average temperature which includes everything from daytime highs to nighttime lows at 17.3 degrees compared to the norm of 16 degrees.

July 2018 was ranked as the eighth warmest July on record with records in Williams Lake going back to 1961.

“In terms of precipitation what was recorded at the Williams Lake weather station was only 27.2 millimeters in comparison to what is normally observed which is 52.7 millimeters ranking July 2018 for Williams Lake as the 12th driest July on record,” says Ervin.

(Editor’s Note: The spelling of Ervin’s last name was incorrect and has since been corrected.)