Prince George was among the communities where the wind blew hardest Tuesday during the storm that swept across much of the province.
Gusts reached as high as 94 km/h, according to Environment Canada. Only Victoria endured as much velocity, although speeds of up to 115 km/h were recorded at the Trial Island lighthouse off the southern tip of Vancouver Island.
In Prince George, the brunt of the storm struck at about 3 p.m. and was accompanied by a short burst of heavy rain along with thunder and lightning.
Trees toppled onto wires and kept BC Hydro crews hopping as more than 6,800 customers were left without power. But by about 4 a.m. most services had been restored.
However, a forest fire broke out near Tete Jaune Cache, 266 kilometres east of Prince George, when when a tree fell over a powerline.As of midmorning Wednesday, it had grown to about 200 hectares.
Wildfire management branch spokeswoman Amanda Reynolds said 26 firefighters were on scene and the blaze received some snowfall overnight and followed by rain. But Reynolds added the vicinity's steep terrain had added to the difficulty of containing the fire and low cloud cover delayed a helicopter fly over to assess the situation.
Highway 16 remained opened according to the DriveBC website and no structures are in immediate threat, Reynolds said.
Environment Canada meteorologist Cindy Yu attributed the storm to a low pressure system moving across the province.
"This storm produced quite a bit of impact around B.C. in terms of wind," Yu said. "The good news is that we didn't see a whole lot of precipitation with it. In the Central Interior we had five to 10 millimetres of rain with some of the showers and thunderstorms."
The bulk of the thunder and lightning strikes activity occurred south of Williams Lake and east of 100 Mile House.
"Not too bad, I think the wind gusts are the main focus with this storm," Yu said.
