In case you didn’t notice, a long, hot summer turned into a warm, dry, fall?
How warm and dry? We called environment Canada and spoke to a meteorologist who said that July was about two degrees warmer the whole month than the average temperature.
He says that the Chetwynd/Tumbler Ridge area only got 45 percent of the normal precipitation.
That rolled into a hot, dry August, that was almost four degrees above average. “This year saw the second-warmest August on record for the Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd area,” he says.
That heat was exacerbated by a lack of precipitation, only about 20 percent of the usual. “It was the fifth driest August on record, too.”
So it’s no wonder that the South Peace was a tinderbox by the time the end of the month rolled around, and a number of major fires, including the Bearhole Lake fire, which started on August 31 and quickly blew up to 6,499 ha, causing the closure of Highway 52 and the evacuation of Kelly Lake.
A day earlier, a fire started in the Battleship Mountain area, near Hudson’s Hope. That one grew to 34,753 ha, and, on publication day, was still only considered being held.
Both fires were still smoking last week, but with the weather dropping to below seasonal averages on the weekend with rain and the occasional snow at higher elevation, and cooler weather expected over the next week, it is hoped that we are done worrying about wildfires for the remainder of the year.
According to BC Wildfire Service, it is not unusual for fires to continue into October. On October 18 of last year, they say, there were 127 wildfires burning.
“What is unusual for the current time of year are the widespread drought conditions many parts of the province are facing and the number of new starts per week,” they say. “There were 63 new fires detected over the week of October 6–12, 2022.”
This is nearly five times higher than the average for this time of year. In fact, they say, it has exceeded the previous 20-year maximum of 40 new fires detected in a week, set in 2006.
“Fires detected per week are likely to remain above normal for as long as the hot and dry conditions persist into October.”
However, they also point out that there is an important side effect of the fire season starting relatively late this year. “The number of wildfires this year across the province is above average (1690 this year compared to 20-year average of 1651) but the total area burned is below average.”
The late season fires were helped by a September that was warmer by three degrees, making it the third warmest on record.
There was more moisture that fell in September than in the previous months, though it still only reached 60 percent of average. This, says the meteorologist, was actually one of the wettest places in the province for the month of September.
This has changed, as the high-pressure systems are moving away, and there is cooler weather coming in from the north, pushing temperatures to below average for at least the next week.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
