B.C. wildfire season expected to be ‘challenging,’ officials warn
Posted June 8, 2023 3:42 pm.
Officials in B.C. are warning that this year’s wildfire season is shaping up to be a challenging one.
Matt MacDonald, lead fire weather forecaster with the BC Wildfire Service, says hot and dry conditions in October of last year and May of this year have contributed to the situation, with the province experiencing a drought.
“That accelerated the curing of our fuels, of our forests, but it also accelerated the melt of our snowpacks in the alpine. We shed that snow extremely fast. Fortunately, there wasn’t too much flooding, but again, what this did is it made our fuels available to lightning,” he said during an update on Thursday.
MacDonald points out that every year, a majority of B.C.’s wildfires are caused by lightning and we’re getting to the time of the year when strikes are more common.
He adds 16 communities in B.C. broke temperature records for the month of May.
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Neal McLoughlin, superintendent of Predictive Services for the BC Wildfire Services, adds summer temperatures are likely to be warmer than normal, increasing the potential for further ignition and more severe wildfires.
“With snowmelt now in our past, we could be seeing even more ignitions earlier. Three to four weeks earlier in the month of June,” he said.
“I really want to make clear to everyone that it’s more important than ever to be responsible with permitted fire use and extremely cautious with any activity that could spark a wildfire.”
There are 82 active wildfires burning in the province as of Thursday afternoon, with more than 450,000 hectares of land already burned this year. A campfire ban covering most of the province officially took effect Thursday.
Meanwhile, an evacuation order has been issued for residents of Tumbler Ridge, a community of about 2,400 people in northwestern B.C. near the Alberta border.
The order was issued because if the West Kiskatinaw River wildfire, which is burning out of control at 9,600 hectares as of Thursday afternoon.
