Rainy Prince George weather good news for wildfire seasonal outlook

The rainy weather we’ve been experiencing lately is pretty good news for the wildfire season. 

The Prince George Fire Centre has updated its seasonal outlook today (June 22), showing the wet weather has moderated fuel dryness across the province.

The 2020 wildfire season did begin with drier-than-normal conditions before the rain started falling.

The report states that in April, fires spread quickly through valley bottoms where light fuels, such as grasses, dried out quickly due to dry winds and low humidity.

These fires were successfully contained to a small size due to actions of response crews and a high level of underlying moisture content from snowmelt, periodic rain and freshet. There’s been 168 wildfires this season so far with 662 hectares burnt.

Periodic rain also helped to keep the number of ignitions low in April, May and the first half of June.

The Fire Centre says that as B.C. remains in a weather pattern that is producing periodic rainfall, meaning limited fire starts can be expected.

However, the remainder of the wildfire season in B.C. will be highly dependent on local weather patterns, length of drying periods and wind events.

BC Wildfire Service (BSWS) says that current suppression tactics are expected to remain successful to holding most wildfires to a small size, thanks to the rainfall. The frequency of rain, rather than the amount, will be more important later in summer to help keep wildfires to a small size. 

If rainfall is received periodically throughout the spring and into June, larger fuels, requiring longer drying periods, are much less likely to ignite limiting fires to mostly fine fuels.

BCWS notes the weather patterns that the region's been experiencing is difficult to predict, claiming to be unstable in nature.

Weather models currently show variability as to whether B.C. will continue to have patchy rainfall across the province or if it'll move into a drying phase.

If B.C. enters a sustained drying period, deep fuel layers will begin to dry out and if it experiences successive drying periods without widespread periodic rainfall, there will be a rise in wildfire behaviour potential.

On June 18, BCWS lifted its ban on Category Two and Three open fires within the Prince George Fire Centre two months after staff prohibited them for the health and safety of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is still potential for forest fuels and grasslands to intermittently dry out and so everyone who plans to spend time outdoors in the coming weeks is encouraged to use caution with any activity that could potentially spark a wildfire. 

Poorly managed and abandoned campfires result in numerous wildfires each year.