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Here's how hot and dry it was in May in B.C.

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More than a dozen places in B.C. saw the hottest May on record this year, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

This May wasn't the hottest one in Vancouver since records began being kept in 1896 -- but it came close, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Information released Monday shows the average temperature for the month was 15 C, 2.2. degrees above the average, making it the second-hottest May on record in the city. In Abbotsford, the average temperature was 16.1 C, 3.3. degrees hotter than average for that municipality and the hottest since records began being kept in 1945.

Of the 23 locations in the province listed by the weather agency, 16 broke records for average temperatures during the month. Kelowna had the highest of all at 18.1. C which is 4.1 degrees above average. Records there date back to 1899.

The place with the lowest average temperature was Dease Lake at 9.6 C which is 2.9 degrees above average for the Northern B.C. community.

"It was much warmer province wide," the weather agency said in a tweet.

It was also dry in May on the Lower Mainland, with Vancouver and Abbotsford both seeing less than 30 per cent of average precipitation, according to ECCC. Although none of the locations listed came close to setting or breaking records, 19 of the 23 saw drier-than-normal conditions.

The Weather Network's summer forecast predicts a "very warm" summer but says the heat will not be as "relentless" as it has been in some recent years because it will be broken up by some cooler and wetter stretches. The wildfire risk is cited as a "major concern" but the network is "cautiously optimistic" that there will be periods in which the province receives "much-needed rain."

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