112-year-old high temperature record broken in B.C. Interior

Salmon Arm. B.C., is seen in this undated photo. (Credit: Shutterstock)

As atmospheric rivers pounded the B.C. coast this week, the warm air they brought with them contributed to record-breaking high temperatures in the Interior.

Six communities saw their warmest March 20 on record Friday, including one where the previous record was set more than a century ago.

Weather records have been kept in Salmon Arm since 1893, and the previous highest temperature recorded there on March 20 was 16.7 C back in 1914. On Friday, the mercury rose to 20 C, breaking the 112-year-old record by more than three degrees.

Another record set Friday was nearly a century old. In Penticton, the previous high mark for March 20 was 17.8 C, set 98 years ago in 1928. The high on Friday was more than four degrees warmer, at 22 C.

Three other records set in the Interior Friday eclipsed previous marks that were set just last year.

Kelowna set a new record of 18.9 C, up from 17.4 C last year, Osoyoos set a new record of 21.4 C, up from 20.4 C, and Vernon set a new record of 18.8 C, up from 16.2 C.

The sixth record set on Friday was in Summerland, where the high temperature was 19.5 C, breaking the previous March 20 record of 17.8 C set 86 years ago in 1940.

Weather records reported by Environment and Climate Change Canada are based on “a selection of historical stations in each geographic area that were active during the period of record.”

ECCC operational meteorologist Morgen Shull said she was “very jealous” of the warmth and sunshine in the Okanagan as the Lower Mainland suffered through hundreds of millimetres of rain from Sunday through Friday morning.

Shull explained that the atmospheric river that struck the province in the second half of the week originated over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

The warm, moist air from the south caused significant precipitation on the coast, melting snow, swelling rivers and triggering landslides.

As it crossed the Coast Mountains, however, the air dried out and grew even warmer, helping push the Interior to unseasonably high spring temperatures, Shull said.