Photo: Nicholas Johansen - Castanet

Waterfront Park

Wicked winds swept across Kelowna Sunday causing severe damage to boats and homes.

Environment Canada is reporting winds to have been between 55 and 60 kilometres an hour in some areas of the Central Okanagan. In Kelowna, gusts of up to nearly 70 km/h were reported at the airport.

Armel Castellan a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says the strongest winds were reported in Kamloops where speeds reached 79 km/h in some locations.

“With an upper cold front sweeping through it is fairly vigorous for this time of year and while it was a short lived event in Kelowna for some places the wind went on late into the evening,” said Castellan.

Wind wreaked havoc beyond the interior right down to the south coast, according to Castellan.

Monday’s forecast still anticipates some north-west winds of up to 20 km/h throughout the day and into the evening.

“There is little chance of severe weather coming through, so not the hail or strong wind gusts that come with severe summer weather - we won’t get that in the southern half of the province,” he explained.

However Castellan warns there could be pockets of strong winds and rain in some isolated areas.  

“There will be just garden variety showers on Monday with a very, very low chance of a thunderstorm.”

The skies are expected to clear this evening and into Tuesday morning. There is a chance the winds will pick up tomorrow morning, but only to speeds of 10 km/h.

“So we are seeing a little bit of a wave come through, but of course that ridge is building right back up behind it, which is a typical summer patter,” said Castellan. “We are expecting to see the temperatures build back up again around Thursday and Friday in the upper 20s C, which is just above seasonal norms.”

Environment Canada does not anticipate another cold low system, which could bring rain, until Sunday.

“It is still too early to tell what will happen on the weekend but things should change around for this to be an easy week as far as where little wind and rain are concerned.”