Belated start to wildfire season

Only takes two days to raise risk of major blaze

Fires have burned only 10% as much of B.C. forests so far in 2022 as is usual by this point in July, provincial officials say.

But they cautioned the outlook for higherthan-normal temperatures, with a significant heat-up expected to begin this weekend, could touch off a belated start to another significant fire season.

“Even though we’ve seen a slow start to our fire season, all we need is a week or so of warm dry weather, a little bit of wind, and our fuel conditions can change quite rapidly and be receptive to ignition,” Matt MacDonald, lead forecaster with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said during a Thursday briefing.

One to two consecutive days of temperatures above 25 C, with low humidity and slight winds, is all it takes to dry out forests and make them susceptible to quick-spreading fires, MacDonald said.

In Kelowna, highs of around 25 C are forecast from Friday through the weekend, rising to the low 30s early next week, before falling back slightly to about 26 C for the rest of the 14-day forecast period provided by The Weather Network. Little precipitation is forecast.

There is a “relatively strong signal” of warmer than normal conditions from mid-July through mid-August, MacDonald said. Less rain than usual is expected, though there is less certainty with precipitation forecasts than with temperature projections, he said.

From April 1 until now, 2,748 hectares of B.C. forests have burned, which is only 10% of the usual amount by early July, MacDonald said.

Normally by early July, there have been 111 fires across B.C. caused by lightning strikes; the total so far this year is only 30.