Monday’s rainfall not nearly enough to end Okanagan’s dry spell

As the Central Okanagan comes off of the second driest June ever recorded with just 5.1 millimetres of moisture accumulated, the entire Okanagan has just been moved to a drought level three or ‘severely dry.’

On Monday night the region saw some scattered rainfall — just not nearly enough.

“It is certainly really positive to receive some rain, however unfortunately, what occurred in the Okanagan last night was just too small and too localized to really make any meaningful kind of impact in terms of drought,” explained River Forecast Centre hydrologist Natasha Cowie.

Over the past 24 hours, Kelowna reported 4.4 millimetres of rain, while Vernon received 3.8 millimetres, and in Penticton, just 0.4 millimetres.

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“What we really need for longer-term drought relief, is prolonged, cooler-temperature rainstorms,” explained Cowie.

“So, when you see those low-pressure systems that move in and really stay for a while, and you get sustained steady rainfall rather than these convective outbursts.”

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While any precipitation during a drought is a welcome sight, more hot, dry conditions are expected to persist throughout the valley.

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“By the time we get into the weekend, those daytime highs will be back into the mid-30s, and that will completely erase any progress that was made by this little bit of moisture,” said Global News meteorologist Peter Quinlan.

But not everyone is thrilled about Monday’s rainfall — from now until the end of August is cherry harvest season, and rain this time of year can have a negative impact on crops.

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“The challenge for cherry growers is that when their cherries are ripe or nearing being ripe, the water will collect in the stem bowl and on the nose of the cherry, and it will absorb through the skin, which will cause the skin to burst and that will render the cherry unsalable,” said vice-president of information and production at Jealous Fruits, Alex Geen.

Jealous Fruits is one of the larger cherry growers in the valley. To protect their cherries, they use helicopters to mitigate the effect of rain.

“So, helicopters are very effective, but they do come with a price tag, so we only run them when we know we need to blow because if it’s a small storm we won’t have to, but rain like last night we’ll have to.”

In Central Okanagan, the temperature is forecasted to reach 35 C by Sunday.