Weather records were broken this week as the Nelson area experienced warmer than usual temperatures for May.
“We did set a record here in Castlegar on Monday we hit 30.7 degrees,” said forecaster Ron Lakeman with the Southeast Fire Centre. “The auto station in Nelson hasn’t been recording temperatures as high and that’s largely because the station is located down by the lake.”
Lakeman said that while temperatures in the 30s aren’t typical for this time of year, there is often a patch of warm, dry weather in May.
“It is a strange fact, but the warmth that we saw in the last few days typically does occur some time in May so even though we talk about things being unseasonably warm, it does tend to happen sometime in May that we do get a stretch of hot dry weather,” he said.
“It didn’t happen last year so it is kind of a welcome return to many residents.”
Things began to cool off on Wednesday with temperatures reaching the mid-20s, and Lakeman expects similar temperatures for the long weekend with the potential for rain on Monday.
“Monday there is a possibility for a system coming in,” he said. “There may be some rain coming Monday, likely in the afternoon.”
The Queen City has been without precipitation for close to two weeks, following a wetter than normal April.
“We’ve now gone about 12 days without rain,” said Lakeman. “If we look at how things transpired through the early part of the spring where it rained every third day, we have had a stretch of dry weather of late and it’s definitely been on the warmer than normal side.”
For the summer, Lakeman said there is some indication July and August will be hot and dry, but June is still “up in the air.”
“June is typically more unsettled compared to May,” he said.