She is not amused
Flooding, forest fires and record snowfall make Mother Nature 2017’s Newsmaker of the Year
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. In what was described as B.C.’s worst wildfire season in recorded history, combined with an unprecedented flood of Okanagan Lake and a six-week dry spell, everyone was talking about something weather-related in 2017.
Mother Nature was voted the South Okanagan’s Newsmaker of the Year by Penticton Herald readers in our 15th annual poll. Mother Nature is also the first repeat winner, also receiving the honour in 2003.
Of the five finalists, Mother Nature received 84 per cent of all votes cast this year. Panhandler Paul Braun, who has been hauled into court by the City of Penticton, was second with nine per cent.
Cindy Yu, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said statistically, 2017 may average out to a normal year, but only due to lopsided numbers bookending the seasons.
“When you average it together it looks like a normal year because it was so extreme on both ends,” Yu said.
Between December and February, Penticton saw an overall snowy winter. The precipitation counts were on par, but late snowfalls led into the spring season. For March through May, Penticton had 225 per cent of its normal precipitation.
“It was a very wet spring and everything of course dropped off in mid-June. From mid-June onwards, we pretty much didn’t get anything and that was our summer. It was pretty dry,” Yu said.
More strange weather began on the evening of May 4, when a sudden surge in the flow of Mill Creek in Kelowna launched five weeks of steadily rising lake levels. Locals, who had lived in the area their whole lives, had never seen anything like it.
The height of Okanagan Lake peaked on June 8 at 343.25 metres above sea level, beating the previous record set in 1948.
As a result of the flooding, the iconic Kiwanis Walking Pier located near the Penticton Lakeside Resort was destroyed. The SS Sicamous also floated for the first time since 1990. Many locals went to the lake each night to see the flooding. Among those who came to visit was then-premier Christy Clark, who toured the area with members of Penticton city council.
Many blamed provincial officials, in part, for not widening the release gate at the Penticton dam earlier in the spring to draw down the lake level.
The popular Channel Parkway was closed for most of the summer. The high-water levels were blamed, in part, for a drowning death of a 21-year-old tourist. While floating with friends, his raft became tangled on the Green Avenue bridge pillars.
Once flooding subsided, Mother Nature’s wrath came with devastating forest fires beginning on July 4 in Kaleden, when a 6.5-hectare fire scorched along a hillside between Oak Avenue and the KVR Trail, just above Skaha Lake. Hundreds of residents were put on evacuation alert.
The fire was contained and only one home was destroyed.
On the morning of July 20, many West Bench residents were greeted with bangs on their doors by emergency personnel telling them to immediately leave their homes due to a fire that quickly burst to one hectare in size. Amazingly, Penticton fire crews were able to contain the fire and no homes were lost.
A 1,000 hectare fire between Peachland and Summerland brought Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the area, where he flew over the devastation and met with Okanagan firefighters and thanked them for their heroics.
The most destruction occurred near Princeton, when a month-long fire spread to 3,300 hectares. Many of the evacuees from Princeton and Williams Lake were brought to Penticton, where an emergency reception centre was set up inside the community centre and additional beds made available on the concourse of the South Okanagan Events Centre.
Even if you weren’t near a fire, there was always a constant reminder as smoke blew across the valley, resulting in newspaper headlines such as “Smoke-anagan.”
To make things more challenging, Penticton went on to snap its 56-day record for longest dry spell. And just to end the year with a bang, Mother Nature dropped a record snowfall on the Okanagan on Dec. 28.
Accumulated snowfall of 20 centimeters shattered the old day record of 15.2, set back in 1923.
Tourists stayed away in droves this summer. Tourism operators in the Okanagan used the words “high-water levels” instead of “flooding” to describe the status of Okanagan Lake. According to the Thompson-Okanagan Tourism Association, revenue losses were between five and 20 per cent for businesses dependent on visitors.
Even in the chaos of flooding and fire season, there were many good news stories.
Firefighters from across B.C. were praised for their outstanding work. Communities rallied together to help those who were displaced by fires. Volunteers, including many high school students, helped line the shore with sandbags. Many tourists who had trips booked to the Okanagan simply chose to do something other than visit the beach.
Penticton Lakeside Resort general manager David Prystay even made light of the situation promoting free use of life jackets and swimming lessons for Hooded Merganser patrons.
As cruel as Mother Nature was, she did treat us to something wonderful. On the morning of Aug. 21, there was a partial solar eclipse, briefly darkening the course for participants in the ITU Multisport World Championships.