Average Daily Maximum Temperature – Minimum – Sunshine – Raindays – Snowdays – Snowdepth – Windspeed
For many people, the towns of the Okanagan Valley offer the best weather in Canada. Winters are cold, but are shorter and less severe than most Canadian cities. Summers are hot and sunny.
Penticton and the Okanagan Valley are surrounded by the Rocky Mountains.
The mountains block Arctic winds from reaching Penticton. They also prevent mild maritime air reaching Penticton in summer, leading to warmer weather than Vancouver.
Penticton’s high summer temperatures are more pleasant than Ontario’s because humidity levels are lower.
Penticton’s afternoon humidity in summer is about 35 percent. Toronto’s is about 55 percent.
Snow depths of greater than 1 cm are seen on about 35 days each year in Penticton compared with about 65 days in Toronto, 88 in Calgary, and 120 in Ottawa.
Penticton, British Columbia
| Month of year  |
Av. Daily Max. Temp. (°C)  |
Av. Daily Min. Temp. (°C)  |
Av. hours Sun (per day)  |
Av. Days with Rain  |
Av. Days with Snowfall  |
Av. Depth Snow on Ground (cm)  |
Av. Wind Speed (km per hr)  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. | 1 | -4 | 1.3 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 14 |
| Feb. | 4 | -3 | 2.8 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
| Mar. | 10 | -1 | 4.6 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| Apr. | 16 | 2 | 6.5 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| May | 21 | 7 | 7.6 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Jun. | 24 | 10 | 8.2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Jul. | 28 | 13 | 9.5 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Aug. | 28 | 13 | 8.9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Sep. | 22 | 8 | 7.1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Oct. | 14 | 3 | 4.6 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Nov. | 6 | 0 | 1.8 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 15 |
| Dec. | 1 | -4 | 1.2 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 16 |
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The Rocky Mountains are nowhere near Penticton. Disregard that information entirely.
Lol… go east or west and what will you find… the Rocky Mountains! Sure we can’t see the mountains from Penticton or Kelowna but that doesn’t change the fact that geographically we are surrounded by them and they alter our weather.
Does Pencition get a lot of thunder and lightening? I’ve been thinking of moving from Vancouver to the interior but don’t do well with thunder and lightening.
No Penticton doesn’t have a lot of storms typically.
Penticton does get some summer electrical storms and some in the fall. Once a plane we were in couldn’t land in the Penticton airport due to the winds and an electrical storm. Our pilot stayed above the storm and flew the plane back to Vancouver for the night. It doesn’t happen often but it happens. We watch the light show from inside our home.
Penticton has the mildest winter of any Canadian city not on a coast. In the winter it is, by far, the least likely place in the BC interior to have snow on the ground.
Penticton, as I am discovering, has milder Winters, but the ‘socked in’ cloud and lack of Winter sunshine is a detriment to me.
Are there many areas in southeastern BC which are far from tall mountains and gorges, large rivers and lakes and which more resemble plains or meadows? More specifically, desert meadow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadow#/media/File:Desert_meadow_in_Eastern_Washington.jpg , wooded meadow https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/LaelatuWoodedMeadow.JPG
, savannah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna#/media/File:Australian_savanna.jpg
http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/archive/last-places-on-earth-1.html#.XVb-REd7kdU , rangeland https://www.alamy.com/fall-colours-and-rangeland-porcupine-hills-alberta-canada-image276930155.html and/or grassland?
Please name some of those towns or hamlets.
Have those lands been hit sometimes with lightning or drought induced fires?
And which may be somewhat closer (~ 17Km) to a city or more urbanized area?
Take a look at city of Merritt, and also the Cariboo region.
The majority of Southwestern BC is mountainous – the Rockies. Have a look at a topographic map. There are a number of river valleys running north south throughout the Rockies, where you will find most of the habitated areas.
The largest city in BC behind Vancouver and Victoria, (which are both on the coast) is Kelowna, which is in a Lakeside River Valley with a desert climate.
The Rockies are located along the border between Alberta and BC. Google it – there are many major and sub ranges – but the Rocky mountain range has nothing to do with the Okanagan Valley. they are 7 hours away from the okanagan valley. To the west of Penticton exists the Thompson Plateau, which does have mountains that elevate from this feature, but is definitely not the rocky mountain range. Immediately to the east of Penticton is the Okanagan range.
Hi, I’m from New York, where the Hudson Valley and southwards sometimes get hurricanes and serious flooding. NY state also gets an average of 12 tornadoes yearly, since national records began in 1950, though most have been Class 0 thru 2, which usually don’t do much damage. Are tornadoes, flooding (or drought?) sometimes serious problems in the southeastern part of BC?
Gregory,
No tornados or hurricanes in southern BC okanagan. Some flood possible during freshet, but these areas are not so populated. Not serious problems no.
Also it is a dry desert region, look at Osoyoos for example, but there are many lakes so water is not an issue for crops which include fruit and particularly grapes for winemaking. Can grow many varietals well. Smoke from forest fires can happen in summer.
Tornadoes are incredibly unusual in this region. Flooding does happen from time to time, but drought is more of an issue. Wildfires are the big thing that we deal with here in BC.
Penticton feels very cold in the winter due to the wind chill as the wind blows from lake to lake, with Penticton in the middle. So the temperature may say warmer than other cities but feels cold most of the time. I lived in Kamloops for years before here and about the same temperature per say but did not feel chilled all the time in the winter like here in penticton.
Funny I never noticed that winters are depressing and I have lived here for 45 years. Keep busy and don’t pay attention to weather that much. Happy people don’t notice gray skies !
All BC communities which lie in a valley – and that is most communities – have cloudy winter skies November to March. The sun occasionally pokes through but not often. This weather usually begins to improve around the middle of February. Cranbrook, the sunniest city in BC, tends to have more sun in the winter than the Okanagan but it is colder and drier.
Actually, Victoria is the sunniest city in B.C. According to Environment Canada, Victoria (at Victoria Gonzales station) gets 2193 annual hours of sunshine versus 2190.5 for Cranbrook. You could probably call it a tie!
Les does the weather vary much between twin lakes and penticton? Is the weather the same in naramata as penticton with the gray winter days? Thank you
A mild climate sunny.. in summer. The winters are terribly cloudy overcast which is depressing. In winter Calgary is colder more extreme but gets warmer sunny days in winter… the chinooks but colder spells as well.Prefer Calgary in winter….. but come spring Penticton is much better early spring dry and sunny too. The leaves come out almost a month earlier a real sign of spring.