June rains dampen fire activity in Kamloops Fire Centre

Jul 2, 2018 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — June ended up being a soggy month in the Kamloops Fire Centre but that doesn’t mean forest fires won’t return with a vengeance later this summer.

Fire Information Officer Brenna Ward says there was 29.6 millimetres of rain this June (June 1 to June 29) — a huge increase from the 3.4 millimetres seen in all of June 2017.

But despite the rain, she says hot temperatures are expected to return by the middle of next week which means things could change in a real hurry.

“Right now, our fire danger rating in the Kamloops Fire Centre is low to very low with a few pockets of moderate but it doesn’t take much for that to change,” she says. “And it could just require a week of high temperatures and low humidity.”

She says that means it would only take 48 hours for the fire danger rating to increase and for the fine fuels on the forest floor to dry out. Fine fuels are the dry leaves and twigs you find on the surface of the forest.

“We are in a better position than last year, but the general outlook is still for a warmer and drier than average summer and short-term events like heat waves and thunderstorms have a big effect on fire activity. They are impossible to predict too far ahead of time. So, be safe, be fire smart and don’t be complacent.”