BY Eva Cohen

Vancouver Sun

August brought the long-awaited summer heat to Vancouver and the sizzling temperatures and sunshine should continue — at least for one more weekend.

With the rain throughout winter here, many people “live” for the summers, so since it began so late, will the weather stay nice longer to make up for it?

Get ready for a beautiful long weekend, because the answer is:

This week’s wet weather was just a blip in the otherwise warm and dry forecast, said David Jones, a meteorologist for Environment Canada. The entire south coast and the Interior will have warm, dry weather through Labour Day, he said.

“The weather looks really good for the long weekend, the forecast is very optimistic,” he said.

There will be a high of 27 C on Saturday in Vancouver, and Kamloops will be dry and sunny for the next several days, said Jones, with highs of 30 C and sunshine through next Wednesday.

“We’re going into a solid ridge to begin September,” said Jones. “There’s been a little bit of rain around Vancouver, but it will turn back to summer on the weekend.

After a grey July, the month of August was dry and sunny across southern B.C. Vancouver had just one day of rain, well below the monthly average of seven days of precipitation.

On that single day, half of the monthly average fell in one go: 20 millimetres. As a result, total rainfall for the month wasn’t remarkably low, said Jones, and didn’t threaten any records.

Vancouver receives 268 hours of sunlight in a typical August, while this year the city soaked up 321 hours of sun in the month — 120 per cent above average.