Severe thunderstorms, heavy rain possible in Kamloops, Okanagan tonight

A change in the weather means a good chance of severe thunderstorms bringing with them heavy rain in a large swath of the Southern Interior this evening and overnight. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the South Thompson, Okanagan, Shuswap, Nicola, Similkameen and Boundary regions today, Aug. 23. The watch includes the cities of Kamloops, Salmon Arn, Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton, Merritt and Princeton. A low pressure system off the coast of Oregon is moving inland today and will track across the Souther Interior this evening with the potential to produce heavy rain and thunderstorms. Kamloops and the South Thompson region are expected to get the most rain with up to 40 millimetres forecast in the heaviest of the rain. According to a special weather statement, the rain will begin this evening and taper off to a few showers by Saturday morning. Fraser Canyon, Eastern Fraser Valley, Whistler and Pemberton are also going to be impacted by heavy rain.? The forecast thunderstorms can produce intense lightning, large hail and damaging winds along with torrential rain. They’re forecast to begin early this evening and last until after midnight. For the latest on the weather watch and special weather statement go to Environment Canada’s website here https://weather.gc.ca/index_e.html?layers=alert . For the latest road conditions head to DriveBC here. http://www.drivebc.ca To contact a reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander mailto:halexander@infonews.ca  or call 250-309-5343 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tip@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .