Despite hot and dry conditions, BC Wildfire reports lower than average area burned

Sep 1, 2022 | 4:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops Fire Centre saw more than 170 lightning caused wildfires in the month of August. And while conditions have been ripe for wildfires to burn out of control, the BC Wildfire Service has been able to knock-down the majority of new starts quickly.

“It might appear to be conflicting information that we’ve had these hot dry conditions yet why is our area burned so low. So some of those factors which contribute to less area burned this year are, we started the season quite late, we had above normal over winter precipitation, cooler spring temperatures, late snow melt,” said Neal McLoughlin, Superintendent of Predictive Services with the BC Wildfire Service.

Environment Canada Meteorologist Doug Lundquist confirmed that Kamloops was hit hard by summer heat, much like the rest of B.C.

“We had more than half the stations in British Columbia have the hottest ever August. Kamloops, you didn’t quite make it, you were number two,” said Lundquist. “It was 23.9, that’s three degrees above the average.”

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Along with hot temperatures, the Kamloops area also endured a drier summer.

“We had drier than average conditions in Kamloops. For the month of August we had 7mm we usually get 24mm, so it was way drier than average,” added Lundquist.

Over the entire summer, there was 59 mm of rain compared to the average of 93.

Even with a lighter summer of wildfire activity, McLoughlin noted fires are beginning to trend down as the calendar flips to September.

“Right now our Pacific Ocean temperatures remain 3-5 degrees above normal. That is going to translate to warmer than normal temperatures through September for most of the province,” said McLoughlin.

There are currently 31 fires burning in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

“Above average temperatures are likely across B.C. through September and return to normal temperatures is not likely until October,” continued McLoughlin.

by Michael Reeve

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Despite hot and dry conditions, BC Wildfire reports lower than average area burned

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