Winds associated with a storm that blew through the Shuswap yesterday knocked hydro service out to some 1,400 people.
As of 8:15 this morning, a total of 876 properties continued to be without power in the south-east-west end of Mabel Lake Road north of Silver Hills Road. Crews are on-site to repair lines that were downed at 4:29 p.m. yesterday.
At 4:10, 274 people in the Sunnybrae area also lost power and crews are expected to arrive at 10 a.m. this morning to make repairs.
Small pockets of five to 17 customers remained without power at 9:25 a.m.
Environment Canada meteorologist Greg Pearce said the line of thunderstorms that rocked through the Shuswap registered very little rain at the automated station, which measured only 1.3 mm of water – “Hardly enough to get the ground wet,” he said. “I doubt you got more than five to 10 mm in any area.”
But the wind was another matter.
Wind gusts originated from the north to northwest, bringing much cooler air and gusts to almost 60 km/h.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you had some gusts around 70 km/h,” Pearce said. “I don’t have an exact number but given damage and some of other observations, they could have been 70 to 80 km/h.
Local damage was minimal, says Rob Niewenhuizen, director of Engineering and Public Works for the City of Salmon Arm.
“There was some minor cleanup in some of the parks,” he said. “I think the previous two storms knocked lots of debris out.”
While the temperature dipped to about 8 C overnight and will top out at about 20 C today, the heat will ramp up again for the weekend. Sunday’s high is expected to be about 30 C.
“There is no indication of any precipitation for the next five days,” said Pearce. “It’s going to be hot and dry.”