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The latest external newsletter from the Kamloops Fire Centre.
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Kamloops Fire Centre 2015.08.27
O ver the month of Au-gust, the BC Wildfire Service has responded to 138 new fires in the
Kamloops Fire Centre, which have burned roughly 4,144 hectares. The fire behaviour witnessed on some of these fires has been aggressive and volatile. This kind of fire activity resulted from high drought codes and minimal precipitation received over the summer months, reaching a pinnacle in August.
This past month has also been char-acterized by heavy smoke through-out the Kamloops Fire Centre, produced mainly by larger fires in the province and within the United States.
Many of the BC Wildfire Service’s crews will be heading back to school in September, which will decrease the number of firefighters we have available within the Kam-loops Fire Centre. To prepare for this, the BC Wildfire Service has agreements in place with contract crews to supplement our remaining crews. Resources can also be reallo-cated to areas experiencing in-creased wildfire activity so that all crews are used effectively and effi-ciently.
The BC Wildfire Service appreciates the efforts made by our stakehold-ers and industry partners to prevent human-caused wildfires.
The Testalinden Creek wildfire was discovered on Aug. 14, 2015, and now covers to 3,170
hectares. This fire is now 60-per-cent contained. It’s believed to be lightning-caused.
Fire Zone # of Fires # of
Hectares
Clearwater 80 164
Kamloops 85 563
Salmon Arm 61 14
Vernon 46 360
Penticton 96 5,078
Merritt 62 514
Lillooet 17 2,327
This picture of the Wilson’s Mountain Road
wildfire, one kilometre north of Oliver,
was taken on Aug. 14, 2015. This fire co-
vers 317 hectares.
P A G E 2
News from Kamloops Fire Centre
Check the link below for the latest information on wildfires within the Kamloops Fire Centre.
http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/FireCentrePage.asp?FC=5
Report a wildfire: 1 800 663-5555 or *5555
KAMLOOPS – The majority of the thick smoke blan-keting many areas of southern B.C., has drifted north from large wildfires in the United States. The smoke in British Co-lumbia has resulted due to strong southerly winds. A temperature inversion trapped the smoke in val-ley bottoms, which result-ed in poor visibility and air quality issues. Detecting new fires in these conditions can be challenging. If you spot open flame from a new
wildfire or a distinct col-umn of smoke, please re-port it to *5555 or 1 800 663-5555 as soon as possi-ble. The most active fire in the Kamloops Fire Centre is the 3,100-hectare Testalinden Creek wildfire south of Oli-ver. Air operations have been restricted in previous days due to reduced visibil-ity. Crews continue to work day and night to increase containment on this wild-fire. The majority of the smoke in the area has drift-ed up from across the U.S-Canada border. Smoke concentrations will vary
widely as winds, fire be-haviour and temperatures change. The wildfire smoke is expected to remain for the next few days. To see the current smoke forecast for western Canada, visit http://firesmoke.ca For the latest information about air quality, check www.bcairquality.ca For more information about forest fires and your health, visit Interior Health’s website: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/YourEnvironment/EmergencyPreparedness/Pages/Forest-Fires.aspx
For up-to-date information on current wildfire activity or burning restrictions visit: www.bcwildfire.ca. You can follow the latest wild-fire news: * On Twitter at: http://twitter.com/BCGovFireInfo * On Facebook at: http://facebook.com/BCForestFireInfo
Smoke in B.C. Interior from U.S. wildfires
Industry partners must im-
mediately use available
resources to suppress new
fires and report fires they
see or start, as outlined in
the Wildfire Act and Wild-
fire Regulation. Quick de-
tection is critical for BC
Wildfire Service personnel.
The Fire Danger Rating
throughout the Kamloops
Fire Centre is predomi-
nantly “high”, with areas of
“extreme” in the Salmon
Arm and Lillooet fire zones.
Industry personnel need to
pay particular attention to
the Fire Danger Class rating
for their operating areas,
available at http://
bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/
DgrCls/index.asp?Region=5
They should also ensure
that they use the appropri-
ate weather station data
for the area where they
are operating and adhere
to the shutdown formulas
outlined in the Restrictions
on High Risk Activities,
available online at http://
bcwildfire.ca/
Industry_Stakeholders/
industry/
HighRiskActivities.htm
Anyone who fails to report
a new fire may be subject
to an administrative penal-
ty of up to $10,000.
This article provides gen-
eral information only and is
not to be used for opera-
tional planning or to make
operational decisions.
More information is availa-
ble at www.bcwildfire.ca
To report a wildfire, please
call 1 800 663-5555 toll-
free or *5555 on cellular
networks.
All new wildfires must be reported
P A G E 3
Precipitation
Temperature Relative Humidity
These maps are for informational purposes only and should not be used to make operational decisions.
Fire Danger Rating
For the most recent weather maps, please visit www.bcwildfire.ca/weather
P A G E 4
Most recent forecast for KFC Valid as of 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 27, 2015 SYNOPSIS: The upper ridge will lead to warm conditions and smoke for one more day and then the pattern change begins. A southwest upper flow will continue with increasing amounts of cloud cover. Smoke or haze will result in many valley locations due to poor venting. Temperatures and relative hu-midity values will be similar today to the last few days. Winds today will be fairly light, increasing this evening and overnight above the inversion level of 1,000 metres. Wind gusts of 40 to 45 km/h will develop over the highest ter-rain overnight. On Friday, a new upper low will progress southwards and link up with the current upper low off the coast. This will increase the wind flow in all areas for Friday, with the inversion breaking early on Friday. Moderate to strong winds will occur at upper levels with increasing southerly winds for the valleys. There will also be a scattering of showers on Friday, along with isolated thunderstorms mainly in the North Thompson. TODAY: Subsident Zone, North Thompson and Monashees: A mix of sun and high cloud along with smoke in many valley locations. Winds light and variable in the valleys. Winds for the higher levels will increase to southwest 15 to 20 km/h by late afternoon. Minimum relative humidity of 15 to 30%. Highs 25 to 30 C. TONIGHT: Subsident Zone, North Thompson and Monashees: Increasing clouds and local smoke. Winds south 15 km/h in the valleys and south to southeast 20 to 25 km/h by late evening at mid-slope and southwest 40 to 50 km/h over-night higher ridges and mountain areas. Maximum relative humidity near 50%. Lows 10 to 15 C. TOMORROW: Subsident Zone, North Thompson and Monashees: Cloudy with sunny peri-ods. A few isolated showers mainly along the ridges. Risk of an afternoon thunderstorm mainly in the North Thompson. Winds south 20 km/h with afternoon gusts to 30 km/h. Winds for higher levels southwest 40 km/h with gusts to 50. Brief gusts to 60 km/h near possible thunderstorms. Min rh 20 to 40%. Highs in the mid 20’s C. 3 TO 5-DAY OUTLOOK: (Saturday to Monday): A deep upper trough develops along the B.C. coast for Saturday with a strong south to southwest upper flow ahead of it spreading moisture into the western interior. Rain is antici-pated for the southern part of the fire centre. For northern areas, we expect showers. Isolated embedded thundershowers possible mainly over the North Thompson. This set-up will herald the arrival of very cool north Pacific air. For the rest of the outlook period, we will reside in this cold trough pattern. The chance for heavier rains or shower downpours will occur on Saturday. For Sunday and Monday it will be mainly cloudy, cool with scattered shower activity.
Kamloops Fire
Centre Statistics
Since April 1, 2015:
Fires to date: 447
Hectares burned: 9,020
Person-caused fires: 139
Lightning-caused fires: 307
2009 at this time:
Fires to date: 871
Hectares burned: 47,853
Person-caused fires: 248
Lightning-caused fires: 593
2003 at this time:
Fires to date: 678
Hectares burned: 77,682
Person-caused fires: 251
Lightning-caused fires: 427
P A G E 5
Kamloops Fire Centre Indices—August 27, 2015
For general weather information, visit: http://bcwildfire.ca/Weather/
Want more weather information?
View an interactive map of the weather stations here: http://
webmaps.gov.bc.ca/imf5/imf.jsp?site=protection
View a daily list of the danger class rating here: http://bcwildfire.ca/
hprScripts/DgrCls/index.asp?Region=5
Find how danger class relates to industry operations here: http://
bcwildfire.ca/Industry_Stakeholders/industry/HighRiskActivities.htm
P A G E 6
Fine Fuel Moisture Codes
Report a wildfire *5555 on a cell or 1 800 663-5555
Wildfire Information Line 1 888 3FOREST
Burn Registration Line 1 888 797-1717
Kamloops Fire Information Officer 1 250 554-5965
Want more information? Visit the website at bcwildfire.ca
Important Numbers
W eather information is used to
develop codes to indicate
how dry the different classes
of fuels are in the forest. From this infor-
mation, preparedness levels are set on a
daily basis.
The FFMC (Fine Fuel Moisture Code) is
a code that measures the dryness of fine
fuels (grasses, needles, etc.). A number of
85 or higher indicates a good chance of a
fire start from an ignition source. Once 90
or higher is reached, all the fine fuels are
available to burn.
The DMC (Duff Moisture Code)
measures about 10 cm into the ground and
is an indication of whether a fire that starts
will continue to burn in the duff. A number
of 40 or greater would indicate that a fire
will continue to burn.
The DC is the Drought Code, measuring
deeper in the ground. A number of 300 or
greater indicates that the fire will burn
deep into the ground, providing challenges
to mop it up.
The Danger Class is the typical Fire Dan-
ger Rating that is seen on fire signage,
where 1 and 2 represent Low, 3 is Moder-
ate, 4 is High, and 5 is Extreme. A map of
the current Fire Danger Ratings is on Page
3.
* If you have any questions about which
weather station you should be monitor-
ing, please contact your company forest-
er or local fire zone for information.
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