Half a dozen B.C. communities saw their hottest Sept. 15 on record Friday, including one place where the previous record was set 86 years ago.
That record was set in Summerland, which saw temperatures rise to 30.3 C on Friday, more than a full degree hotter than the previous record of 28.9 C, set in 1937.
Records have been kept in the Summerland area since 1907, meaning Friday was the first Sept. 15 in at least 116 years to record a high temperature above 30 C.
Summerland's wasn't the hottest record broken on Friday, however. That distinction goes to Kamloops, where the mercury hit 32.7 C, narrowly edging the previous record of 32.6 C set back in 1979.
Elsewhere in the Interior, Penticton tied its 1956 record of 29.4 C.
Two other records set away from the coast Friday were in the Blue River area (new record of 28.9 C, surpassing the old record of 28.5 C set in 1979) and in Dawson Creek (new record of 28.1 C, surpassing the old record of 28 C set in 1981).
On Vancouver Island, the Malahat area saw a high of 26.2 C Friday, breaking the previous Sept. 15 record of 25.9 C, which was set in 2014.
Environment and Climate Change Canada says its reported temperature records are based on "a selection of historical stations in each geographic area that were active during the period of record."
British Columbia has seen unseasonably warm temperatures for much of this year. Over the summer, those highs have combined with ongoing drought to exacerbate the wildfire season, which has been the province's worst on record in terms of land area burned.
Northern B.C., especially, is expected to see a "very atypical" fall season, officials warned in a news conference this week.
Continued warm, dry weather will likely mean the fires currently burning in the Prince George Fire Centre will continue burning through the fall, and some may even burn through the winter and pop back up next spring, according to Neal McLoughlin, superintendent of predictive services for BC Wildfire Service.
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