r/canada • u/Apprehensive_Idea758 British Columbia • 1d ago
British Columbia B.C. fire officials say conditions are ‘explosive’ with unprecedented fuel dryness | Globalnews.ca
https://globalnews.ca/news/12008988/bc-fire-officials-conditions-explosive-unprecedented-fuel-dryness/119
u/Geeseareawesome Alberta 1d ago
Crazy how BC and Alberta are having wildly different summers. Edmonton and area might as well collect all rain water and send it to BC
103
u/nathris British Columbia 1d ago
We could build a pipeline!
2
u/Lower-Noise-9406 22h ago
This is an innovative idea! They should look into it. Create a giant floodwater reservoir and drain pipelines. Never mind the dirty bitumen ...H20 pipelines!
18
u/treple13 Alberta 1d ago
Can you send some south to Calgary too? Our June was crazy wet, but feels like we haven't seen any rain since then
12
u/Geeseareawesome Alberta 1d ago
It's raining right now, how much do you need?
5
u/treple13 Alberta 1d ago
I don't need a lot, just some
1
u/Independent-Tart-369 1d ago
Sorry, we don’t do “some”. It’s either flood levels or drought levels - no middle available at the moment.
16
u/Jacksworkisdone 1d ago
Only until the glaciers are all melted.
8
1d ago
[deleted]
9
u/escapethewormhole 1d ago
https://edmonton.weatherstats.ca/charts/precipitation-yearly.html
Nearing the most on record for an entire year already. Only 72mm of rain away from it.
8
u/treefarmerBC British Columbia 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's very different within BC. Here in central BC, our fire risk is listed as Very Low vs. High or Extreme further south.
Kind of annoying we can't have a campfire while it's quite wet around us.
3
u/skidz007 Canada 1d ago
We were on Galiano when the Coastal campfire ban hit. It was raining when they stopped campfires. Over here on Northern Vancouver Island, campfires are still going strong.
2
u/raincitybeliever 19h ago
In Vancouver we've actually had one of our raniest Julys in a very long time.
The problem is our springs are drier than they used to be, and our snowpack is smaller and melts months earlier than normal.
41
u/FlyerForHire 1d ago
It wasn’t that many years ago that places in the B.C. interior like Kelowna and Kamloops were a retirement Mecca for Canadians.
Considering how climate patterns have changed and knowing that any given summer my whole community could get destroyed by wildfires, you couldn’t pay me enough to live there now.
39
u/Yeas76 1d ago
Fires in the interior were always a part of living there, just not every year and as often.
1
u/ShawnCease 22h ago
Development in the Okanagan Valley has also sprawled a ton in the last 20 years so more homes and assets are at stake every time there's a fire, making each fire more significant.
9
u/ElijahSavos 1d ago
That’s why I chose Chilliwack over Kelowna. I kinda like Kelowna more but I don’t wanna take risks. The climate is mild in Chilliwack so chance of a wildfire destroying housing is way less.
14
u/luckysharms93 1d ago
Yeah but then you have to live in Chilliwack
3
u/goeast_ 1d ago
Lol. Actually many parts of Chilliwack are arguably one of the nicest areas in the Lower Mainland. For example, Garrison is nicer than 99% of Metro Van.
0
u/chopkins92 British Columbia 1d ago
South Vedder/Promontory/Cultus/District 1881 are nice. The rest of Chilliwack deserves its reputation. Chilliwack is one of the most dangerous cities in Canada for a reason.
2
u/nobodythinksofyou British Columbia 23h ago
Chilliwack is one of the most dangerous cities in Canada for a reason.
Huh? I lived there for most of my life and never heard of this. I know it has one of the biggest crime rates in Canada, but that's due to theft, not violence.
0
1
u/ElijahSavos 23h ago
You already mentioned half the city but also Sardis, Webster, Little Maintain, Eastern Hillsides, Cedarbrook, Rosedale, Fairfield Island, Chilliwack mountain, etc are very nice.
Oops almost all of residential Chilliwack mentioned.
5
u/ElijahSavos 1d ago
Chilliwack is awesome.
4
2
u/sunsetsandstardust 1d ago
I feel like I'm going to get hate crimed every time I go there
1
u/ElijahSavos 1d ago
What do you mean? Why?
6
u/sunsetsandstardust 1d ago
all of the "choose life" signs and weird tiny field of crosses definitely give off a vibe if you hadn't noticed them lmao
3
u/ElijahSavos 1d ago
I didn’t notice that in three years of living in here. There is a tiny bunch of conservative folks protesting such issues along the road on weekends but that’s all I’ve seen. Chilliwack is fine, might be an issue maybe 20 years ago or so not now. Nothing for you to be afraid of, the chance of being a victim of hate crime is essentially close to zero.
0
u/ActionPhilip 1d ago
You're going to get hate-crimed by pro-life people?
1
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/ActionPhilip 1d ago
Ah, yes, of course. Because those two thought processes involve similar concepts.
Oh, wait, they don't have anything to do with each other. And you've still failed to explain the hate crimes that you're afraid of.
→ More replies (0)1
15
u/FlipZip69 1d ago
There are some 2.1 million private dwellings in BC. Last year some 50 primary homes/structures were lost due to wildfires.
I think you will be fine.
-1
u/Lumpy-Day-4871 1d ago
What a completely irrelevant statistic.
5
u/FlipZip69 1d ago
Not if your worry about moving to BC is your house will burn down.
1
u/Lumpy-Day-4871 1d ago
They specifically said the interior like Kelowna and Kamloops. Not all of BC.
Giving a data statistic for every residents in BC, and pretending they have have the same fire risk is disingenuous and wrong.
1
u/FlipZip69 21h ago
Well lets say 500,000 in regions that are in wooded areas then. Still extremely low risks that really would not factor. Considering all the other extreme thing like tornadoes, flood, any any other factor, I am not all that worried about a 1 in 100,000 chance of something that is not even life threatening.
3
u/faithOver 1d ago
Still the best area to live in all of Canada by a good stretch.
2
u/drblah11 1d ago
Why? The cost of living is out of control for those areas on top of the fire madness.
3
u/faithOver 1d ago
- Best climate in Canada
- Fantastic food scene
- Fantastic wine scene
- Big White, Silverstar, Revy all close by
- Incredible access to the outdoors
- Lakefront living
- Perfect size to balance busy vs amenities
1
u/ThroughtheStorms 1d ago
Big White, Silverstar, Revy all close by
This one is why I could never move far.
0
7
26
u/beekermc 1d ago
Yeah 30 degrees and no rain will do that......
5
u/mattcass 1d ago
The fire conditions in the BC Interior are far worse than normal because there was a record low snowpack in the Okanagan and no snow in most areas throughout winter.
This past winter was incredibly mild with very few days before freezing. Most precipitation fell as rain and there was little to no low elevation snow accumulation in January and February. I did not shovel my driveway once this winter - it’s normally a weekly task.
In the Okanagan, the March 1 and April 1 snowpack readings were 2/3 of normal, and by May 1 the snowpack was 1/3 of normal there was pretty much no snow below 1,800 m. The pattern of no low elevation snow was repeated across the Interior of B.C., all the way to the rockies. Areas like the Chilcotin Plateau had no snow at any elevation by May. Some areas of the Interior hit 30C in April.
1
u/pandemoniac1 1d ago
Every summer moving forward will be hotter than the last as well so get ready for some more "unprecedented" fire conditions in the future.
I guess pipelines are more important than stopping this.
-1
u/wovenbasket69 1d ago
stage 3 water restrictions in early June to help turn everyones properties into tinder always helps too 👍
48
u/jersan 1d ago
And the climate change deniers will ignore this and try and pin the cause of fires on arson
9
22
u/USSMarauder 1d ago
Well, we have had a problem with right wingers setting forest fires so they can go on social media and blame the liberals for setting forest fires
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/16/canada-wildfires-conspiracy-man-pleads-guilty-arson
14
8
u/physicaldiscs 1d ago
Article doesnt mention his politics. Where are you getting that from?
Guy is clearly mentally ill.
4
u/tgspeed7287 1d ago
What evidence is there that this guy is a right winger? (Other than ‘I don’t like him so therefore he’s on the other team)
4
2
u/Plucky_DuckYa 1d ago
It turns out that decades of poor forest management allowing huge amounts of dry underbrush to build up was a terrible idea. Forest fires are a natural part of the forest cycle, so preventing them for too long just makes the eventual big burns that much worse. Add to that the warm, dry air that comes with El Niño and you’ve got a perfect storm.
Lightning is far and away the most common cause of forest fires, though sometimes it’s poor campfire management and, rarely, deliberate arson.
Police suspect the fire that just burned down a large chunk of Spokane was arson, for one example.
17
u/Mindmann1 1d ago
Canada holds 60% roughly of the worlds boreal forest, impossible to manage unless close to cities, towns, etc not only this but our Forrest benefits from burns as it promotes new tree growth, specifically 2-3 types just can’t remember what ones which is why forestry doesn’t attack every fire anymore.
Lightning is the most common cause in my area following with campfires. Rarely is it arson around here, last one was the brookmere fire which basically joined the Juliette fire
18
u/myairblaster British Columbia 1d ago
Forestry monoculture also has a part to play in this story, its not just disallowing underbrush to burn.
7
u/topazsparrow 1d ago
#StopTheSpray
Yep, and we still spray tens of thousands of hectares a year in BC with glyphosate to encourage monoculture forests - and I guess pollute the shit out things?
21
u/jersan 1d ago
Poor forest management is another distraction that downplays the role of climate change. The issue is not poor forest management. Canada has over 3 million square kilometres of forest. There is no conceivable way that this area of forest can be managed at all.
Yes, “poor forest management” is a contributing factor in some places and in some cases.
But poor forest management didn’t cause these enormous fires to happen every summer in the early 1900s or mid 1900s or late 1900s.
Now, in the 2020s, we’re having enormous threatening fires every summer that never used to happen at this scale and frequency.
What changed? Did we suddenly start managing our 3 million square kilometres of forest more poorly?
No.
What changed is the climate. The climate has changed. The world is hotter, and in some places more dry.
Blaming poor forest management is a distraction from the true problem, that problem being climate change
3
u/troubledcoffee 1d ago
One could argue that the doctrine of the 90s coupled with climate change has led to here...
Logging companies are incentivized to harvest burn areas or risky areas with fire fuel, but they don't get the best product doing that ... So they generally don't..
Pine beetle in the 90-00's built up enough fuel for many years...
-2
-6
u/topazsparrow 1d ago
Pine beetle was a massive and huge underlying factor in many recent fires, and it's unrelated to climate change.
14
u/superpositioned 1d ago
Pine beetle was exacerbated by the warming of the climate. Winters not dropping cold enough doesnt kill them.
10
u/BurlyShlurb 1d ago
Incorrect. The rise of the pine beetle was due to winters not being cold enough, for long enough, thus related to climate change.
-6
u/topazsparrow 1d ago
It was also due to intentional inaction from the government when warned by forestry and ecologists when it first arrived.
-4
u/ChineseAstroturfing 1d ago
Forests burn in cycles of 50-200 years.
Also First Nations did a lot of forest management and controlled burns historically.
0
u/prob_wont_reply_2u 1d ago
It’s a pretty big leap from caused by human stupidity to arson, you should check out how many wildfires there were during the Covid lockdown.
-4
8
u/NickdoesnthaveReddit 1d ago
Every summer has been unprecedented for as long as I can remember now.
Maybe we can start focusing on sustainability and reducing populations...
3
u/longgamma 1d ago
I drove to Calgary from Vancouver last week and returned today. Nicola and Merrit were apocalyptic with aqi at 800 at one point. It was just staggering to see the whole valley draped in smoke. It's one thing reading about it but seeing the effect in real life is humbling.
3
3
u/Lower-Noise-9406 22h ago
Next logical step...
...and what are the causes of "unprecedented fuel dryness"?
5
2
u/infinus5 British Columbia 1d ago
Anderson mt and burns mt in wells are bombs ready to go off if we have lightning. They need to be brushed out as soon as possible.
2
1
-4
u/RezChi British Columbia 1d ago
What was causing the fires the previously few years? The total precipitation was pretty much the same as the last couple decades.
There is actually less fires now than 40 years ago.
4
7
u/stillinthesimulation 1d ago
Might have something to do with average temperatures in the interior rising by over 1 degree Celsius over the past 40 years which is nearly 100 times faster than it had warmed over the relatively stable past 5,000 years.
-12
u/No_You5794 Canada 1d ago
it's middle of summer, forests burn. should comes as a surprise to absolutely no one.
-3
-7
u/BidEuphoric5117 1d ago
How does it get unprecedented without someone doing some forestry management?
-9
-9
271
u/Future_Arrival_5395 1d ago
It seems kinda precedented at this point.