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Weather breaks records

Warmer weather throughout the Okanagan brought a record-breaking day for many cities Monday, including Penticton.

Warmer weather throughout the Okanagan brought a record-breaking day for many cities Monday, including Penticton.

While not quite shorts weather, a high of 13.2C broke Penticton’s old record of 12.2C dating back to 1944. The highest gain was in Summerland where a temperature of 12.7 C on Monday beat their old record of 5.8 C from 2000.

Even with the records, Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist said La Nina has brought pretty much what they predicted back in the fall — average temperatures for the winter.

“It has been pretty consistent of what La Nina should look like with wetter than normal and closer to normal temperatures. Things will be mild into next week,” said Lundquist.

La Nina is usually seen as a wetter period and a few degrees cooler than normal, however, a number of variables affect that.

“Yes, during La Nina we normally do have colder winters by one or two degrees, but since 1980 climate warming has cancelled those two out. It is not always the nightmare situation of cold when we talk about La Nina. Winter temperatures are closer to normal and the snow we get should make for higher precipitation than normal. Winter is only half over, but right now it is pretty close to what we have expected,” said Lundquist.

Over a normal 90-day period, Lundquist said we get about 70 millimetres of precipitation, while we currently sit at about 90 mm with the temperatures in Penticton hovering just above normal.

He said the one-off record in Penticton on Monday happens every once and awhile, and we should expect mild temperatures until the end of the week.