Breaking news: hot weather is on the way for Vancouver, but it is NOT a heat dome.
Vancouver is set to experience some record-breaking heat this upcoming weekend, with daily temperature records likely to be smashed, but don’t call it a heat dome, however, “heat wave” works.
We connected with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) about what you can expect and how long this prolonged heat period might last.
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We got some balmy information from Bobby Sekhon, a meteorologist with ECCC.
Inland, Sekhon suggests we could see temperatures climbing up to 18 degrees above normal, and he suggested that’s “pretty significant for this time of year.”
“It’s pretty early in the year to see a ridge of high pressure this strong.”
And that “ridge of high pressure” is the critical factor in this upcoming heat event, which could be equated to a heat wave in layman’s terms, but not a heat dome.
The difference between what we’re going to see this upcoming weekend and a heat dome is that temperatures will be cooling significantly overnight, as opposed to a heat dome, which locks in hot weather even during overnight periods, sort of like an oven that doesn’t open.
Sekhon also says that the weather we’re likely to experience this weekend is nowhere near as severe as what we saw in 2021 during the heat dome of that summer.
That doesn’t mean it won’t be uncomfortable.
In places like Abbotsford, the temperature record for Sunday is 32.8˚C, and Sekhon says that ECCC is forecasting that area to hit 34˚C.
Peak heat for most of the region will be Sunday and Monday, and some daily record temperatures are likely to be broken in multiple areas, including along the water.
Mid-next week, temperatures should cool but will still be quite warm, and looking further ahead, Sekhon suggests we’ll see more above-normal temperatures, with some fluctuations.