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Cool weather caps off August

August swooped in with a blaze of summer glory, but by mid-month, unseasonably cool temperatures were more the norm.

August swooped in with a blaze of summer glory, but by mid-month, unseasonably cool temperatures were more the norm.

The first two days were the hottest, with 37.3 C recorded on Aug. 1, followed by 27.3 C the afternoon of the Aug. 2, which lead to an overall temperature that was 1.3 C warmer than usual.

“If you go by climate normals, typically the first 10 days of August are the warmest of the year,” said local forecaster Ron Lakeman, from his Castlegar office. “But it turned around Aug. 14 and the latter two weeks of the month were unseasonably cool most days.”

During the first two weeks of the month, temperatures surpassed 30 C 12 of the 13 days, but none of those neared the record high of 40 C, set 46 years ago.

A small southern system brought a heavy downpour and thunder by Aug. 15, when the majority of the month’s precipitation fell over a 24-hour period.

Normal rainfall for the eighth month of the year is about 30 millimetres, but the intense mid-month showers brought almost 43 mm of rain, which is 41 per cent greater than average.

The third week of August had the coolest temperature, 8.6 degrees on the 25th.

Lakeman’s forecast includes a heat accumulation measurement, called growing degree days (GDD), which was 109 per cent the norm in August.

GDD are used by gardeners, farmers and horticulturists, to predict the date that a flower will bloom or a crop will reach maturity.

“This is not used as commonly as in the past but is a benchmark to record average temperatures,” explained Lakeman.

“It is another way to say that August was a little warmer than normal.”

Along with the unsettled start of the school year, is an unsettled weather system that will bring a chance of thunderstorms and cooler weather until late Thursday.

But the weekend looks pleasant, said Lakeman, with high pressure building back into the area bringing sunshine and temperature highs of 28 C or 29 C.

“It isn’t uncommon to get warm and dry weather in September,” said Lakeman. “But clouds could move in Sunday bringing showers with temperatures cooling down again.”



Sheri Regnier

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