How hot does it get at my BC property?

What the answer means

Days over 30 °C

The days in an average year when the station's daily high passed 30 °C, averaged over the 30 years of the normals. A figure like 4.6 means some summers have none and others a dozen.

Days over 35 °C

The same count past 35 °C, where the normals carry it: the days when heat starts to harm people without a cool place to go, most of all older people living alone.

The hottest day

The highest temperature the station recorded from 1991 to 2020, with its year. Many BC stations set theirs in the heat dome of late June 2021, after the period these normals cover, so it is a floor, not the record.

Which station

A report and a place's page take the nearest station within 30 km whose normals carry the figure, 1991–2020 where ECCC publishes them, else 1981–2010. A place without such a station says so on its page.

Elevation and setting

Valley floors heat up most: a lot a few hundred metres above the station, or by a big lake, can stay several degrees cooler. The report gives the lot's elevation against the station's.

Keeping a home cool

Ask whether the home has air conditioning or a heat pump, which rooms it cools, and how the upstairs bedrooms fare in July. Shade trees on the west and south and an attic that vents its heat count for a lot on a valley floor.

Fewer years

Some stations' figures rest on 15 to 25 of the 30 years. They're marked with an asterisk: treat them as a rougher guide.

Hot-day counts are a station's averages, read by us for the nearest station; the lot itself can differ, and recent summers have run hotter than the 1991-2020 averages in much of BC. Confirm with a home inspector or HVAC contractor about the home's cooling, and the regional health authority about heat warnings before you buy or build.

Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020 and 1981-2010, Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada).

By place

262 of BC's 319 places have days over 30 °C in their nearest station's normals within 30 km. Places are listed by name here; the places with the most days over 30 °C ranks those whose figure rests on the full 30 years.

* Based on fewer years than the WMO standard: these figures rest on at least 20 or 15 of the 30 years, short of the World Meteorological Organization's standard of nearly all of them. ECCC publishes them as normals; treat them as a rougher guide.

The other 57 places have no station within 30 km, or their station's normals carry no count of hot days; their pages say which. A dash means the normals don't carry that figure (ECCC's 1981-2010 normals carry no highest temperature). Distances are from the town centre (in an electoral area, its main settled place).

Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020 and 1981-2010, Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada).