Temperatures on the rise in the Okanagan just in time for the long weekend

Okanagan residents face another cold night of frosty temperatures before the mercury returns to more seasonal values in time for the Thanksgiving long weekend.

Record lows were set in Vancouver Thursday when temperatures dipped briefly to 0 Celsius, breaking the old record of 1 C, set in 1965.

In the interior, Clinton set a new record at -10.3 C on Wednesday, breaking a record going back to 2009, and Smithers set a new cold temperature record of -8.2 C, breaking a record set in 1959.

Environment Canada meteorologist Mike MacDonald says a strong cold front pushing down from the north had record breaking effect on cold temperatures along the coast, where most of the 24 records broken last night in B.C. occurred.

Kelowna flirted with its low temperature record, where the mercury dipped to -6.3 C last night. The previous record was -7.5, set in 2009.

It was -5.9 in Penticton, where the record was -8.3 C, set in 2009.

Kamloops was well short of its records where overnight temperatures dipped to -4.1 C, against the record of -8.2 C.

In Vernon, last night’s low of -3 C was well short of the record -7.3 as well.

“October 2009 was a really cold month. That’s when most of the Okanagan’s records were set,” MacDonald says.

Okanagan residents should see mainly sunny skies today, with 15 km/h winds, a high of 9 C in Vernon and Kelowna, and 11 C in Penticton.

Vernon and Kelowna should see a low of -3 C while Penticton drops to -4 C overnight.

Wind chills of -4 C are expected today, dropping to -5 C tonight.

Friday should be sunny with a high of 12 C in Vernon and Kelowna, 14 C in Penticton, along with a morning wind chill of -5 C.

Friday night skies are expected to be clear with a low of 0 C.

Cloudy skies are expected Saturday with a high of 11 C and a low of 5 C.

A 40 per cent possibility of showers is in the forecast for Sunday with a high of 10 C and a low of – 1 C under clearing night skies.

Holiday Monday promises to be sunny with a high of 10 in the Okanagan, along with an overnight low of 3 C.

Normal daily high and low temperatures for Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton this time of year are 13 C and 3 C.

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