A vigorous cold front tore through the Shuswap Sunday evening, knocking out power to more than 2,000 customers.
“There are a couple of elements that made it remarkable for late summer,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Lisa Coldwells Monday. “As it was approaching from the north, there was a moderate southerly wind and temperatures rose to 26C – a beautiful late summer afternoon because all the air was mixing along the front.”
As the front went through at 5 p.m., the wind rapidly shifted to the north, delivering a maximum gust of 54 km/h in its haste.
Temperatures dropped dramatically to 16 degrees within two hours, said Coldwells.
“Kelowna saw hardly any rain, but had a 69 km/h wind gust,” she said, noting the front swept across the entire province, dropping a mere 1.7 millimetres of rain in Salmon Arm. “It wasn’t remarkable for the rain but the discontinuity of 10 degrees.”
Coldwells said the province is now under the modified cooler air typical of fall days – mainly sunny afternoons with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees.”
And while Coldwells warned of a minimum temperature of 3 degrees Tuesday morning with risk of frost, she said the daily lows for the rest of the week are in the neighbourhood of 10C.
Meanwhile, the wind likely interrupted many dinners as falling trees knocked out power in two storm-related incidents.
BC Hydro rep Carly Moran said one outage lasted from 5 to 7 p.m. affecting 1,425 people in an area north of 30th Avenue SW, throughout Tappen and along Sunnybrae Canoe Point Road.
The second outage caused by storm-tossed trees lasted from 7:30 to 9 p.m., affecting 711 people north of the Trans-Canada Highway, east of Calhoun Road in Tappen.