By Greg Fry

May in Kamloops the hottest on record

Jun 1, 2018 | 10:55 AM

KAMLOOPS — Environment Canada has confirmed this May was the warmest ever on record in Kamloops.

“The average temperature was 18.2 degrees when we tallied the numbers up,” says Meteorologist Doug Lundquist. “The usual is 14.6 so we were about 3.5 degrees above the average.”

He says it allowed Kamloops to beat the previous average high of 17.7 degrees seen in May 1958 and again in May 1993.

Lundquist says May was also the fifth driest on record with just 2.4 millimetres of precipitation which worked out to just nine per cent of usual. The record for driest May remains 1901, when there was no precipitation.

So, what accounted for the hot and dry weather?

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“There was a persistent ridge of high pressure over the western part of North America,” says Lundquist. “Other cities had their hottest Mays ever like Seattle, and Vancouver had its driest ever and second hottest ever.”

Despite the scorching temperatures last month, he says the spring months — which Environment Canada considers to be March, April and May — came out only slightly warmer than average at 10.5 degrees, about a half a degree above average, and wetter.

“We had about 65 millimetres of precipitation and it’s usually about 54. So, 20 per cent above average. It goes to show you that even though we had a record breaking month for May, if you take the average over a longer period of time, things can work out close to average and that’s because April was quite cold.”

Looking ahead to June, Lundquist says we can expect cooler temperatures in Kamloops the next week or so but warmer temperatures the latter half of the month.