BC is facing severe drought conditions more typical of the end of summer as thousands of firefighters battle to suppress flames in the worst fire season on record.
The Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness held a news conference Thursday illustrating the dire situation of drought in BC.
David Campbell with the River Forecast Centre said many areas of BC are in a 100- to 250-millimetre “precipitation deficit,” and the province will need “months of above-normal rainfall to get us back to a reset. ”
Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness
The entire northeastern swatch of the province is at the worst level on BC’s five-point drought scale, as is Vancouver Island.
Metro Vancouver isn’t far behind, at a level four on the scale. In all, 94% of the province’s land area is at a level three drought or higher.
Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness
The province is in a much worse drought situation now than it was all summer in two previous drought seasons — all but October 1, 2022, right before the fall rains came.
“It wasn’t until the fall we reached any level five droughts,” Campbell said.
BC is seeing conditions typical of September, and that’s troubling because we’re only midway through July — and have much more hot, dry weather ahead.
This year’s wildfire season has already set a record for the most area burned — outpacing the 2018 season as the most destructive.
More than 1,200 wildfires fires have been sparked since April, and 80% of them are confirmed to be caused by lightning. There are 2,500 firefighters battling the fires on the ground, including personnel from Mexico, the US, and Australia. Tomorrow, 100 Brazilian firefighters will arrive to help the effort.