6
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 volale. This kind of fire acvity resulted from high drought codes and minimal precipitaon 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 acvity so that all crews are used effecvely 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.

Kamloops Fire Centre Newsletter August 27 2015

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

The latest external newsletter from the Kamloops Fire Centre.

Citation preview

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.