Rains bring some relief in B.C.'s record wildfire season, but barely affect drought conditions

Recent rains have offered some reprieve in British Columbia's record wildfire season, but several blazes still threaten communities and officials cautionthere could still be tough times ahead.

Most regions in the province haveonly received 40-80 per cent of their usual rainfall for this time of year, the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) says.

"We have to be ready for what is typically our hottest and driest month, which is August," said Cliff Chapman, BCWS director of operations.

The active number of wildfires in the province has dropped since Monday, down 70 to 412 because of the precipitation.

Chapman said the rain has shifted the fire hazard from the north of the province to the south and the BCWS is shifting some resources to reflect the change.

The province remains in a prolonged and unprecedented drought, with much of the northeast and Vancouver Island already at Level 5, the highest on the drought scale.

"We are just so much earlier and so much worse with the drought situation," said Jonathan Boyd, hydrologist with the River Forecast Centre.

Consequences could be felt into the fall, winter and through to next year if significant rain doesn't arrive in the next months, according to the minister for emergency management and climate readiness.

"In 2021, the way we got out of the drought season was with the atmospheric river storms," said Bowinn Ma, referring to the series of downpours that caused widespread, catastrophic flooding in November that year. "That wasn't a particularly pleasant way to get out of a drought situation."

Ma said people need to shift their mindset around the use of water because of the impact of climate change.

"We're very used to having access to plenty of water here in British Columbia," she said. "But that's changing very rapidly."

Warmer weather, thunderstormsin forecast

According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, a handful of evacuation orders have been downgraded to alerts in several parts of the province, including for an area near the 41-square-kilometre St. Mary River wildfire that broke out 10 days ago near Cranbrook, destroying seven homes north of the city.

Twenty-one highly visible or potentially threatening fires are listed on the wildfire service website, while the site shows eight new blazes have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

Environment Canada says another warming trend is on the way and it points to a risk of thunderstorms to wrap up the week in many areas from the central coast, Cariboo and southern Interior to the northeast and southeast regions of the province.

The wildfire service says 1,496 mostly lightning-caused fires have been recorded in B.C. since the start of the season on April 1, charring a record-breaking 15,107 square kilometres of trees, bush and grassland.