B.C.'s bad fire seasons 'a new norm of unprecedented wildfires'

Up to 60 per cent of the snowpack already melted due to unseasonably hot weather

May 27, 2019

With another hot, dry summer ahead, B.C. is poised for a third consecutive record-breaking fire season after 2017 and 2018 rewrote the record books.

Pockets of northeast and northwest B.C. are already rated at “extreme danger” of fire, while the Central Coast and parts of Vancouver Island were rated as high danger, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.

Up to 60 per cent of the snowpack has already melted due to unseasonably hot weather and the forecast is for more of the same.

The area burned by forest fires in each of 2017 and 2018 was the highest ever recorded in B.C. and three times the 10-year average.

“(Bad fire seasons) are not outliers anymore,” said Chris Bone, a climate researcher from the University of Victoria. “We aren’t having an off year … we are living in a new norm of unprecedented wildfires and everything that goes with that.”

The past two summers saw widespread air quality advisories lasting for weeks and months across much of the province.

“The spike in physician visits due to respiratory issues are also getting to unprecedented numbers,” he said. “All these impacts of wildfires are getting to levels we have never seen before.”

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported a 120-per-cent increase in daily physician visits and an 80 per cent increase in asthma medication prescriptions last summer.

As our forests are increasingly ravaged by disease and pests such as pine beetle or bark beetle and weakened by drought, fire risk climbs ever higher in a snowball effect, he said.

“Fire has become a much more complex phenomenon for us to navigate,” he said.

Weather Network meteorologist Doug Gillham notes that fire season is off to an early start in Western Canada and fears a higher than normal threat of wildfires and smoky conditions.

About 5,000 people in High Level, Alta., and surrounding communities have been out of their homes since the long weekend, as the Chuckegg Creek fire rages three kilometres outside the town. The fire — still out of control — has swept over 127,000 hectares.

Residents on the Sunshine Coast have been unnerved by a spate of four small brush fires over the past few weeks, one of which consumed two-and-a-half hectares near Smuggler Cove. Earlier this month, a discarded cigarette in Davis Bay ignited a blaze that damaged the offices of MLA Nicholas Simons.

The Fontas River fire southeast of Fort Nelson is the largest active fire in B.C., at about 650 hectares. Nearly 50 firefighters and three helicopters are battling the blaze.

Environment Canada has issued a smoky skies bulletin for parts of northeastern B.C. and the Interior, including the Fort Nelson and neighbouring areas in the Peace River, Cariboo and Bulkley Valley regions.

People with pre-existing health conditions, infants and the elderly are being advised to limit their exposure to smoke.

The wildfire service has recorded 15 other fires in the month of May, some consuming between 300 and 800 hectares each.

Persistent hot weather has produced rapid melting in the province’s snowpack this spring, with most mid-elevation areas already snow-free, according to the Rivers Forecast Centre.

Snowpacks are the lowest observed in mid-May in the past 40 years and could lead to tight water restrictions in some parts of the province.

As much as 60 per cent of the snowpack has already melted at most sites, compared to no more than 25 per cent during an average season.

Precipitation was 30 to 50 per cent of normal across most of the province in early May, with record-breaking temperatures in many areas.

Centre spokesman Dave Campbell says the severity of this fire season depends on conditions over the next several weeks.

“The rain can make up the difference and we’ve seen that in 2015 when we saw these really low snowpacks but a fairly wet summer, and that was able to make up the difference,” he said.

But conditions are unlikely to improve in the near term. The Weather Network is predicting a very warm and dry summer in B.C. and Alberta with a “heightened risk for extended periods of hot and dry weather, especially across the Interior.”

“We’ve already seen some warm days and we expect June overall will continue that trend,” said chief meteorologist Chris Scott.

Dry conditions have also prompted the first campfire ban of the 2019 wildfire season.

The wildfire service has announced burning prohibitions throughout the northwest fire centre. Bans on open burning are also posted for the Prince George and Cariboo fire centres.

With files from Postmedia News and The Canadian Press

[Top photo: A photo shared by the B.C. Wildfire Service shows the Lejac wildfire burning near Fraser Lake on May 11, 2019. B.C. WILDFIRE SERVICE / HANDOUT / PNG]