Okanagan Lake warms up enough to tempt swimmers

The official start to summer was far from balmy, but Sunday made up for it.

Temperatures made their way up to 28 C in the Okanagan, and reached 26 C in Kamloops.

Hot days mean different things in different cities. In the Okanagan, it means lake time and if the number of people who made their way to their local beach wasn’t enough of an indication that summer had arrived water temperatures are.

Okanagan Lake was a balmy 19 C Sunday, which is a rise of four degrees from earlier in the week, according to the WR Bennett bridge thermometer which has its readings posted to wateroffice.ec.gc.ca.

At Canada Day last year, it was the same temperature. The lake usually gets to about 24 C in the height of summer.

To get an idea what that's like from a swimming perspective, 15 to 20 C is the temperature of the English Channel in summer. It will be cool, but people can get used to it.

From 20 to 25 C is ideal lake temperature for swimmers, according to open water safety guides.

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