After lightning sparked more than 100 new fires across the Interior over the past couple days, more dry lightning is expected later today.
With B.C. experiencing hot and dry conditions for more than two weeks, the province is primed for newly sparked wildfires to spread extremely quickly. Wednesday and Thursday saw lightning start dozens of new fires across the Kootenays and the Cariboo regions.
And now, more lightning is forecast through the Central and Southern Interior late Friday afternoon and into the evening.
“Today should be be the most active day in terms of weather activity, with most of the severe threats occurring over the Central Interior, pretty much anywhere north of Revelstoke … where severe thunderstorms are possible,” said Ken Dosanjh.
“Down in the Southern Interior we do have a risk of thunderstorms, pretty much in the Okanagan and east, but we also include Kamloops and Shuswap.”
Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for much of the Central Interior, extending as far south as Revelstoke, north to Prince George.
Dosanjh says the possible dry thunderstorms will be most likely to occur in the late afternoon and early evening hours.
“There's very little water vapour in the lower level of the atmosphere, so when precipation does occur, it ends up being evaporated before it reaches the surface,” Dosanjh said.
The Okanagan could also see winds gusting up to 60 km/h in addition to thunderstorms, Dosanjh says.
While storms are expected to be quite active in the Interior through the rest of Friday, Dosanjh says things should quiet down through Saturday and Sunday, although temperatures are expected to hit highs of 40 C by Monday.
There are currently 292 active wildfires burning across B.C., 78 of which were discovered in the past 24 hours.
Thursday morning, BC Wildfire Service Director of Wildfire Operations Cliff Chapman said B.C. was "on the precipice of a very challenging 72 hours."
“Obviously lightning is our primary source of new fires right now, and so as that lightning hits and with the conditions and the dryness ... I do believe we will have a challenging fire situation in B.C.," he said.
“Fires will be very aggressive right from ignition."
