The hot weather Prince George and area has been experiencing over the last week or so is about to give way to a markedly cooler trend.
After hovering above 25 C and occasionally above 30 C since the end of last month, daily highs are expected to drop back to the low 20s by this weekend, according to the six day forecast from Environment Canada's weather service.
"The big pattern is changing in the eastern Pacific, so we're getting more of a southwest flow from the Pacific coming in," Environment Canada meteorologist Trevor Smith said Thursday. "Our high pressure ridge is moving off to the east, so by Saturday it looks quite a bit cooler and an increasing chance of showers as we get into the weekend."
As of Thursday, just one record has been set since the heat settled in. That was on Tuesday when the thermometer hit 32.4 C, edging out the old record for July 7 of 32.2, set in 1920.
Wednesday's high of 31.8 C fell short of the record, 33.9, also set in 1920.
The cooler weather should come as good news not only to crews fighting wildfires but to loggers and other workers out in the bush.
The fire danger rating for much of the province has been rated at extreme and, in areas where it's been at that level for three consecutive days, all work that could spark a forest fire must cease until the rating has declined to high for three days.
That's been the situation for an area stretching from Hixon to Bear Lake, said Jillian Kelsh, the information officer for the B.C. wildfire management branch's Prince George Fire Centre, although she added there may still be pockets where activity can still occur.
Rain is expected to come with the cooler weather but also thunderstorms with lightning which could spark a new round of forest fires.
"Hopefully, it's more rainfall than lightning strikes," Smith said. "But it doesn't look like a real soaking rain kind of pattern, it's more showers."
Activity in the immediate region has been limited. Firefighters were called to a 2.5-hectare lighting-caused fire in the Grizzly Den-Sugarbowl area about 80 km east of Prince George, discovered on Wednesday.
And on Thursday, a small person-caused fire was found within the area where the massive Little Bobtail Lake fire burned through 25,000 hectares in May.
Kelsh said it's considered person caused because there have been no recent lightning strikes in the area but exactly what sparked the blaze is unknown.
"It could have been anything, not necessarily someone with a campfire," Kelsh said. "It could've been industry, it could've been even someone moving through the area on an ATV, we really don't know. We don't have a solid idea of how that fire started."
