Canadian Deserts

by Jack Harley

So you thought the only deserts Canada could sustain were of the freeze dried kind in the high Arctic.

There happens to be 3 semi-arid regions in western Canada. The Thompson River valley (pictured) west of Kamloops B.C.. in the vicinity of Osoyoos in the southern Okanagan valley of B.C. and the south eastern Alberta badlands. 

Sagebrush and some varieties of small cactus dot the landscape while rattlesnakes can be found slithering in the underbrush. The temperatures can be extreme - approaching 115 degrees F (+48C) enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk in summer to a bone chilling minus 30 degrees F (-35 C) in winter.

Local residents claim that Osoyoos receives more pure sunshine in summer than does Barbados in the Caribbean.

Is  global warming upon us - who knows?

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