While most of British Columbia has seen rain over the past few days, the province says it is just a drop in the bucket when looking at wildfires and droughts.
In a provincial news conference held this morning (Thursday), Bowinn Ma, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, urged residents across BC to “stay vigilant” in the fight against wildfires, mainly by reducing water consumption, respecting fire bans, and reporting new fires.
Jonathan Boyd, a BC River Forecast Centre Hydrologist, explained while the rain certainly helped, the province is still well below even the bottom 10th percentile of dry years.
Prince George was used as an example, we are currently experiencing our driest year ever recorded.
“These graphs have data going back over 100 years,” Boyd explained, making note that the small uptick at the end of the graph represents the rain in the last handful of days.
He said most regions in the province are either at a 5/5 (9 of 34 regions) or 4/5 (14/34 regions) drought level.
32/34 are at a level 3 or higher.
Over 1.5 million hectares have burned in BC this year, which is already the highest total of any year on record.
Primarily due to lightning, 277 new fires have started in BC in the past seven days, bringing the season’s total to just under 1,500. 70% of those new starts are either out, under control, or are being held.
“I think it is worth noting we are still not into August, and August is typically a very significant wildfire month for British Columbia,” Cliff Chapman, the BC Wildfire Service’s Director of Operations.
Ma said there are 3,000 personnel directly engaged with the wildfires, 600 of which are from out of province, and members of the armed forces have been mobilized to extinguish fires that are under control.
She also said 1,060 people are currently under an evacuation order, and 5,640 more are under an evacuation alert.
You can report a fire my calling 1-800-663-5555, *5555 on a cell phone, or through the mobile BC Wildfire app.
In 2023 we have been grateful to receive support from 180 firefighters from Mexico through @CIFFC
They have been deployed around the province, especially in the Prince George Fire Centre, and we are grateful for their hard work to support our crews. https://t.co/ORvcsZvfZK— BC Wildfire Service (@BCGovFireInfo) July 28, 2023
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
