Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

2019 in Weather

Last year was cooler and drier than normal: Environment Canada

Jan 2, 2020 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — Environment Canada has run the numbers for Kamloops in 2019 and concluded that last year was both cooler and drier than normal.

Forecaster Bobby Sekhon says the average daily mean temperature for the year was 8.8 degrees Celsius. That compares to a 30-year average of 9.3 degrees.

Sekhon says a chilly second month of the year had a big impact.

“We saw a very cold February. It was the fifth coldest on record for Kamloops,” said Sekhon. “We got reports of burst pipes and water mains. Shelters were having to work very hard to keep up with the demand.

“That cold February certainly, I think, had an impact on the annual averages for temperatures for Kamloops.”

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Sekhon notes the summer season began ominously hot and dry, but the weather turned around close to Canada Day, staving off another record fire season.

“We kind of made up for [the heat] in July, when we saw a very wet July which kind of kept some of the forest fires at bay,” said Sekhon. “However, it wasn’t all good news. There were some delays to the international baseball tournament that took place in Kamloops in July.”

At the end of the year, Kamloops recorded 226.6 millimetres of precipitation, down 18 per cent from the average.