2026 Wildfire Season

[Cloud Cover]

The Lytton area is just really spectacular viewing and it must have really been something before it has burned repeatedly.
And the very rich history of the Fraser River and the Gold Rush era, the steamboats, the wagon trains, cowboys, mining - to say nothing of the exploits of Simon Fraser himself.
Now - West Kelowna is a different story.
Do you know who this chap is, at an Orchard that he owned but only visited once? He took a train, a boat, and a carriage on his journeys around here. Look at the landscape behind him 130 years ago. Sparse trees, desert grasses. Same as now.

Both regions are hot as hades in the summer, and dry. They always have been.

 

[Brad Sallows]

.

Maybe there should not be a village is this particular location?

Maybe communities have to deal decisively and finally with people who use open fires to prepare their drugs.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

The Lytton area is just really spectacular viewing and it must have really been something before it has burned repeatedly.
And the very rich history of the Fraser River and the Gold Rush era, the steamboats, the wagon trains, cowboys, mining - to say nothing of the exploits of Simon Fraser himself.
Now - West Kelowna is a different story.
Do you know who this chap is, at an Orchard that he owned but only visited once? He took a train, a boat, and a carriage on his journeys around here. Look at the landscape behind him 130 years ago. Sparse trees, desert grasses. Same as now.

Both regions are hot as hades in the summer, and dry. They always have been.

You notice something in those old timey photos?

No trees. Unlike today. A century of fire suppression has lead to a forest where a forest does not belong.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

My Sister in Onaway Alberta says it just won't stop raining there.
Tomorrow they are going to pump out the pond into the drainage ditch that normally is getting low this time of year.

 

[foresterab]

Fire marked as “suspicious”…

Also, stop buying and planting cedar hedges. That’s an Eastern or coastal shrub anyway. They dry out and burn quite quickly in the desert.

This is a 30,000 km2 desert that is quickly reclaiming itself, I don’t know why people pretend it isn’t. I guess because there aren’t many sand dunes. There are plenty of other drought tolerant trees, perennial decorative grasses, lawn seeds and other beautiful shrubs or flowers that thrive here. (Without the need to soak up all kinds of precious water only to quickly dry up in a few days and take a few seconds to burn.)

'A wakeup call': West Kelowna fire chief urges vigilance after blaze

West Kelowna’s fire chief is urging vigilance at the outset of what could be a challenging wildfire season for the B.C. Interior.

www.castanet.net

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/west-kelowna-wildfire-kalamoir-park-9.7242823

Can't fix the stupid factor but it sounds...based upon the article alone...that lessons were learned and some breaks done since 2023.

Saw the 2023 fire taking off...for beer and off line discussion only.

 

[foresterab]

My Sister in Onaway Alberta says it just won't stop raining there.
Tomorrow they are going to pump out the pond into the drainage ditch that normally is getting low this time of year.

Heavy rain causes flooding and sewer backups in Beaumont and St. Albert

Residents in Beaumont and St. Albert are being asked to cut back water use after heavy rainfall overwhelmed the city's wastewater system.

edmontonjournal.com

Not just Onaway. Significant rains in short periods of time are always an issue.

Positive news is that not many fires to date.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Other Sister who lives there just said they got an advisory to stay off the roads.

 

[MilEME09]

My Sister in Onaway Alberta says it just won't stop raining there.
Tomorrow they are going to pump out the pond into the drainage ditch that normally is getting low this time of year.

AB has been getting a lot of rain this past week, which is a good sign for sure. Hopefully it holds like this till August of mild temperatures and occasional rain

 

[foresterab]

Well the interface needs to be pushed back (cut down) a considerable distance.
Those subject residents are interprovincial transplants and they aren’t going anywhere.
That region is jokingly referred to as the summertime capital of another province.

The question on interface is a good one though and I've had this discussion with crews and resources on the line a bunch of times...

We have a dozer guard (~5m) ...but the trees are 30m tall around us
We can build a super guard (many dozer guard widths) but it's windy...
We'll build a really big guard...but fire can easily spot over a kilometer like it did in 2016 across the Athabasca River in Fort Mac...in the middle of the night

Well we'll protect the town...are you measuring from what? A house? Legal boundary? buisnesses? Makes a huge difference in area to protect. Now what about the acreages around the town...are they counted too?

Generally ends with crews trying to hold their line solidly and not second guess nature on what might happen in extreme conditions.

 

[HavokFour]

Hopefully if we dodge being bone dry until much later in the year and won't instead be waterlogged, so we can get a really good growing season in. Lots of countries are going to have to import food this year because of this 'Godzilla' el nino and the business in the strait.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

My Sister in Onaway Alberta says it just won't stop raining there.
Tomorrow they are going to pump out the pond into the drainage ditch that normally is getting low this time of year.

I was just in Edmonton. Driving on the Anthony Henday was treacherous. It was raining so hard, it was almost impossible to see the car you were following.

 

[daftandbarmy]

You notice something in those old timey photos?

No trees. Unlike today. A century of fire suppression has lead to a forest where a forest does not belong.

Logging helps alot with fire suppression too, but Green policies, and poor economics and forest management practises, have shut alot of that down...

 

[foresterab]

Logging helps alot with fire suppression too, but Green policies, and poor economics and forest management practises, have shut alot of that down...

View attachment 100938

The problem with just logging is that if you don't reforest then you accelerate the flooding issues.

Bare slopes = bad things happening to soil. It's something we don't always think of but it's what I was taught was a key factor in the state of Haiti. Logging high value trees for cash for the government + no money to the poor + poor cutting vegetation for fuel wood = soil erosion on the hills reducing farm yields. Due to reduced farm yields more folks moved to the city which resulted in more pressure for fuel such as charcoal which accelerate the logging for fuelwood.

Ironically a Canadian icon is part of the solution to deforestation related erosion and flooding issues....here's an example from the United Kingdom:

Beavers in North York Moors have helped reduce flood risk, experts say

Eurasian beavers in the North York Moors have created a 'complex wetland habitat', research finds.

www.bbc.com

 

[Cloud Cover]

3 of the last 4 large fires around here have been larger grassland fires with conifers being burned up with the grass, tumbleweeds, shrubs and orchards.
All were human caused.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I was just in Edmonton. Driving on the Anthony Henday was treacherous. It was raining so hard, it was almost impossible to see the car you were following.

Turn in your man card. If there was a car in front of you, you were obligated to be trying to pass it. Following isn't allowed.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Turn in your man card. If there was a car in front of you, you were obligated to be trying to pass it. Following isn't allowed.

 

[MilEME09]

I was just in Edmonton. Driving on the Anthony Henday was treacherous. It was raining so hard, it was almost impossible to see the car you were following.

Lots of flooding concerns as edmontons gotten double its normal rainfall, luckily edmonton is high up and not in a valley like calgary in 2013

 

[Cloud Cover]

In a weird twist, the rain storm that hit Edmonton yesterday rotated counter clockwise and with the winds it came down to clobber the North Okanagan with an inch of rain in places.