Cariboo Temperature Records Broken, More Likely To Come

Temperature records were set and broken in the Cariboo this weekend.

Lisa Erven, Meteorologist for Environment Canada, said on Saturday (June 26) Quesnel reached 35.2 degrees Celsius making it the second hottest daily record for June 26 on record.

In Williams Lake, it got up to 33.3 degrees also making it the second hottest daily record for that day.

Erven said Sunday got even hotter setting new records in the Cariboo.

“For Quesnel, we saw temperatures of 39.9 degrees and that broke the old record of 36.7 set all the way back in 1925. In Williams Lake, we got temperatures up to 37.2 degrees and again breaking the old temperature record of 30.3 degrees set in 2015.”

We asked Erven what the hottest day ever for any particular day.

“I did look at those statistics and for the Quesnel area the hottest temperature, the extreme maximum daytime temperature recorded is 36.7 degrees, and that was set back on July 13^th, 1961, and for Williams Lake, the hottest temperature on record was 35.8 degrees set oddly enough September 4^th, 1988.”

Erven says the ridge of high pressure remains in place over the province so we are expecting extreme daytime temperatures with highs of 40 or 41 degrees for today and tomorrow. Looking at how that compares to the past daily temperature records we are forecasting temperatures that will very likely smash old daily temperature records both today (June 28) and for tomorrow (June 29).

Erven added that the good news is that this ridge is going to start shifting eastwards and with it, it’s going to drag that extremely hot air mass with it, more into the Prairies. And we are forecasting a cool down for our daytime highs. On Wednesday we’re only expecting highs of 34 degrees, still 10 degrees above normal for this time of year. As we continue into the week and into the weekend we’re still looking at temperatures that are above normal for this time of year so the same safety precautions still need to be taken.