Rainfall this weekend likely not enough to help firefighting in Kamloops, Okanagan

Earlier hopes that some decent rainfall this weekend would help the wildfire situation may be a bit too optimistic.

On Monday, Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said that a Pacific system would move in this weekend and bring rain with it but it was too early to predict how much that would be.

Turns out, not a lot.

“A number of weather models indicate (showers) are going to be more spotty, in the nature of hit and miss,” he said. “Given the situation being as severe as it is, it’s going to take a lot more than the bit of scattered activity we’re forecasting for the weekend to make a serious dent.”

Last weekend, parts of the Kamloops area got about 15 mm of rain but it dropped off to 12 mm in the Kelowna area then down to little or nothing further south.

Similarly, this weekend could see significant rain in the Fraser Canyon or Revelstoke with the Okanagan and Kamloops area only getting scattered showers.

The same lack of serious rain is likely for the Merritt area, which is one of the most threatened communities right now due to a number of wildfires burning nearby.

READ MORE: July Mountain wildfire grows by 12,000 hectares

Temperatures through the next few days will be in the mid-20s with the likely exception of the low 20s for Sunday.

There is a risk of widely scattered thundershowers on the weekend as well.

There are, however, a couple of silver linings in this somewhat cloudy forecast.

Winds that are now coming from the south or southwest will shift to the northwest on Sunday but that shift is expected to be much gentler than last weekend where wildfires, particularly the White Rock Lake fire where it’s burning on the west side of Okanagan Lake, flared up and destroyed dozens of homes.

READ MORE: UPDATE: Emergency officials now say 70 structures destroyed on west side of Okanagan Lake

For those who are already craving a return to the hot days at the beach that prevailed for much of this summer, there’s also a bit of good news.

By mid-week, temperatures are expected to climb back up to the mid to high 20s.

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