Several dozen new wildfires were sparked over the weekend in B.C. thanks to consistent thunderstorms.
BC Wildfire Service’s lead weather forecaster Matt MacDonald said on Sunday evening that 19,605 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes hit the province from Friday to Sunday.
“Given the drought and dry forests, there were 86 new fires on Sunday alone. With no significant precipitation in sight, things will likely get worse before they get better,” he said on Twitter.
Most of the valley bottoms in the Thompson-Okanagan are at a high or extreme danger rating. The region has been spared from major wildfire activity so far this summer, with crews catching the handful of wildfires before they grew too large.
A lightning-caused wildfire north of Vernon and West of Otter Lake that caused some evacuations on Friday is now held, and everyone has returned to their homes.
A small fire near Ellison Provincial Park on Sunday is under control and extinguished. The cause of that fire has not been determined yet, but it forced the evacuation of the provincial park as the fire first broke out.
The BCWS map is also showing a handful of fire starts in remote regions of the Shuswap and Monashee Range.
It is likely that additional wildfires will be discovered in the coming days, as lightning strikes can take several days to develop into fires.
