August, 2017 from Riverside Park (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Wildfire Impacts

Wildfire smoke has been thicker, lingered longer over Kamloops this year than any in recent memory: province

Aug 20, 2021 | 11:36 AM

KAMLOOPS — There is debate around whether this has been the worst fire season in recent memory for the B.C. Interior, but when it comes to the smoke in the air, there is no debate.

Ben Weinstein is the senior air quality meteorologist with the province’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

Weinstein says the province has an ‘air quality objective’ of 25 micrograms-per-cubic-metre of PM2.5. So far this year, there have been 33 full days — 24 consecutive hours each — when smoke levels in Kamloops have exceeded that objective.

In comparison, by this time in 2017, there had been only 23 such days.

“To date, there are 29 days when the levels of smoke were double our air quality objective,” Weinstein noted to CFJC Today. “In previous years, as of August 19, there were 21 in 2017 and 10 in 2018.”

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“We have had a smoky fire season in Kamloops. It started a little bit earlier than the 2017 fire season and it seems to be going on.”

Weinstein says 2017 and 2018, because of their extreme fire seasons, are the best years for comparison. He says 2019 and 2020 saw very low smoke concentrations.

“Other fire seasons have been pretty pronounced; we have had very high levels of smoke in other fire seasons,” Weinstein said. “This one seems to have a combination of high levels of smoke persisting over a long period of time.”

An additional consideration is the early start for this fire season, which ramped up during the extreme heat dome that formed over B.C. in late June.

“The 2018 fire season was kind of just getting started right about now (in mid-August), so the way things play out to the end of the summer is yet to be seen.”

Though Weinstein’s field of expertise is air quality, not health impacts, he advises people to take as many precautions as they can to avoid inhaling thick wildfire smoke.

“When the air quality is poor, take measures as you can to protect yourself,” he said. “Use a HEPA filter in your house, find areas that are air-conditioned and cooled — those are the things that, I think, are the most important during the wildfire season.”