Which place in BC is most likely to be the daily provincial hotspot?
HINT: It's in the Okanagan valley. You only get one guess, and if you get it wrong, you deserve to get publicly flogged. Once you make your guess continue reading...
If we look at the 75 main weather stations in BC, over the past 15 years all 5 Okanagan weather stations have been the hottest place in the province at least 14 times. Both Vernon and Summerland managed 14 occurrences, or about 1 day per year.
The last time that Summerland recorded the highest maximum daily temperature in BC was July 1st, 2018 when the temperature was 27.1C (Osoyoos was 2nd that day at 26.5C). For Vernon it was March 12, 2017 when Vernon tied Sandspit with a high 12.0C.
Next we have Kelowna, which has on average about 2 days per year as the provincial hotspot (24 occurrences in the past 15 years). The last time this happened was April 19th, 2019 when Kelowna beat Osoyoos by 0.1C to record a temperature of 19.0C.
Penticton has about 4 occurrences per year (50 in the past 15 years). The last one was March 6th, 2021 when the temperature maxed out at 14.1C. This edged out.... you guessed it... Osoyoos by 0.3C.
And finally, we have Osoyoos which averages 62 days per year as BC's hotspot! The average daily maximum temperature in the past 15 years at Osoyoos has been 16.4C. This is warmer than any other place in Canada. Next is Ashcroft at 15.78C, then Lillooet at 15.76C, and then Lytton at 15.72C, and then Penticton at 15.18C, and then Pitt Meadows at 15.15C.
But having the hottest temperature on average throughout the year does not mean you will necessarily have the most days as the hotspot. Nor does it mean that being the coldest spot means you won't be the hottest spot quite often.
Yes, Osoyoos is #1 in both categories, but many of the coldest places in BC are actually the hottest spot quite often. For example, Fort Nelson averages just 5.48C as the daily high, which is colder than any other place in BC besides Tetsa River and Dease Lake, and yet, it is the hottest place in BC more often than Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon, and Summerland!
Of the 75 weather stations in BC, only 4 have never been the hotspot, and all of them have average highs well above Fort Nelson. In the case of Hope Slide, it averages 11.3C, which is warmer than most places north of Clinton, including Clinton.
The other three are Yoho National Park (AKA Field), Prince George, and Burns Lake. Yes, you've read that right, Prince George is the only significantly sized city in BC that is never the provincial hotspot.
Some other places only managed to record 1 or 2 days in the past 15 years. These include Fort St. James, Revelstoke, Williams Lake, Blue River, and MacKenzie.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Osoyoos, which was the hotspot over 1000 times in the past 15 years, or about 17% of the time. This is followed by Ashcroft at 12%, Lytton at 8%, Tofino at 6.4%, Lillooet at 5.8%, and Kamloops at 4.5% (286 times in 15 years).
BTW, April is usually a huge winner for Osoyoos, but this year is mostly Squamish, Pemberton, and Lytton.
Also, south coast places are the BC hotspots:
7) White Rock = 4.50%
9) Victoria (Gonzales) = 3.59%
10) Abbotsford = 3.29%
12) Victoria (airport) =3.17%
14) Saturna Island = 2.85%
15) Squamish = 2.62%
16) Agassiz = 2.46%
18) Pemberton =2.24%
22) Pitt Meadows = 1.54%
23) Hope = 1/33%
26) Vancouver =1.22%
31) West Vancouver = 1.00%
33) Nanaimo = 0.81%
62) Whistler = 0.14%
hotspotbc.png
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