Hope residents weathered a lot in the past few weeks — dry, smoky and hot weather.
According to Environment Canada’s data, Hope stood as the hottest place in Canada at 4 p.m. on Aug. 2, with temperatures rising to 37.2 C. Also, Hope only saw 2.8 millimetres of rain in July, as compared to an average of 48.5mm.
“That’s about six per cent of the normal,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Cindy Yu, speaking on Aug. 3. “And so far, we had nothing in August.”
Yu explained that the southern part of B.C. has seen a dry spell since mid-June. June recorded about 60.5 mm of rain, near a normal of 64 mm. However, from April to May, Hope recorded the reverse — 589 mm of rain versus a 244 mm normal.
Weather systems brought rain to through the North Coast in the summer months, but not to the south. The dry weather in Hope also led to precipitation evaporating before reaching the ground, hence the low rainfall numbers.
Hope registered a 37.2 C temperature around 4 p.m. on Aug. 2 and became the hottest place in British Columbia and Canada. That also broke a 1939 heat record of 36.1 C.
Hope receives less maritime airmass influence as compared to Metro Vancouver, Yu explained, hence it gets hotter eastward.
Yu explained that the smoke stopped Hope from getting even hotter.
“The haze we were getting was acting like a layer of cloud. It’s preventing the radiation from the sun to reach the surface,” said Yu. “Our afternoon temperature was actually a degree or two lower than what it should really be.”