2012 ISSUE 3 JUNE 15, 2012

Duty to Report a Wildfire One of the most basic tenets of the Wildfire Act is the responsibility of citizens to report wildfires when they spot them. According to the act, “a person, other than a person acting in accordance with sec-tion 5(2) or 6(3), who sees an open fire that is burning in forest land or grass land or within 1 km of forest land or grass land and that appears to be burning unattended or uncontrolled must immediately report the fire:

(a) to an official employed in the ministry, (b) to a peace officer, or (c) by calling a fire emergency response telephone number”

The prompt reporting of a wildfire mini-mizes damage to the forest, costs to the public and potential injuries to firefighters. Being a proactive citizen is sometimes as easy as picking up the phone!

On September 4, 1918, the first airplane to patrol for forest fires in the province was commissioned from Hoffar Brothers of Van-couver by the British Columbia Forest Branch. The flying boat was designed by the Curtiss Aircraft Company and built for the price of $8,000. The maiden flight was piloted by Lieut. V.A. Bishop, a resident of Vancouver who was on leave from his duties as a flight in-structor in England.

Unfortunately, the plane plunged from a height of over 450 metres and crashed into a house in West Vancouver just half an hour into its first run. As a result, airplanes were not used to patrol for wildfires until 1920.

Aerial Reporting—1918

Thunderstorms, Lightning and Wildfire

See detailed weather forecast

page 2

In this Issue:

Lightning Trails

Duty to Report a Wildfire

At Coastal

Page 1

Thunderstorms develop in response to the dynamics of an unstable atmosphere. These storms can affect forest fires because of as-sociated weather conditions such as rainfall, wind and lightning. Rainfall and the higher humidity that accom-panies it are the principal benefits of thun-derstorms. However, when the rain from thunderstorm cells evaporates before hit-ting the ground, it is called “virga” and re-sults in “dry lightning”. Dry lightning causes many forest fires in B.C. each year. A dry thunderstorm is potentially more dan-gerous than a wet thunderstorm, because lightning that strikes the ground frequently starts fires in dry fuels like dead wood or brush. The storm’s downdraft and outflow winds usually reach the ground, even if pre-cipitation does not. This combination of

burning dry fuel and strong, gusty winds can be disastrous. Although dry lightning is the most devastat-ing form of lightning for starting forest fires, a thunderstorm doesn’t have to be dry to cause problems. A storm will often pass through a region without starting a fire be-cause of the associated rain. However, if conditions are drier in the days following the storm, a “holdover fire” can occur. This is caused when a lightning strike starts an un-detectable sub-surface fire that does not begin to burn on the surface until weather conditions allow it to do so. The 2009 fire season was one of the worst lightning seasons ever recorded in the Coastal Fire centre, with lightning fires out-numbering person-caused fires by 328 to 200.

- Research by

John Parminter

Today At Coastal Weather

“A bolt from the blue!” It may sound random,

but it isn’t.

Despite the unpredictability of thunderstorms,

they do follow somewhat predictable patterns. They

only occur in unstable air masses that allow upward

air movement to produce cumulonimbus clouds.

The air has to be moist enough to prevent dry air

evaporating and dissipating the cloud. There also

has to be one or more “lifting agents”, such as

mountains, weather fronts and upper troughs.

Thermodynamic thunderstorms are produced by

features like daytime heating and high dew points.

They are slow-moving or stationary and they typi-

cally develop in “favoured areas” that produce these

conditions. They generally dissipate when the sun

goes down.

Dynamic thundershowers exhibit the same fea-

tures but are generated by systems that “move”, like

weather fronts and troughs. These storms can move

quickly as they follow the weather system that cre-

ated them. They can also produce hail, extreme

winds and even tornadoes.

Most of British Columbia experiences weather

that originates over the Pacific Ocean and migrates to

our coast. As these systems hit the coast, they push

winds along valleys and over mountains in a some-

what predictable way. All this activity creates

“lightning alleys” in coastal areas.

If low-pressure systems travel to the south of

B.C., the counter-clockwise rotation of winds around

them will direct winds to the east side of the Coast

Mountains, and if other conditions are favourable,

the Coastal Fire Centre may experience lighting in

the Fraser Canyon and in the mountains near

Pemberton. This instability can also travel from the

mainland across the Salish Sea and produce lightning

along the mountainous spine of Vancouver Island.

If such a low-pressure system moves further

north, it can produce lightning storms across the

southern end of Vancouver Island and across the

Lower Mainland as it passes from west to east.

The Coastal Fire Centre is well aware of these

coastal ”lightning alleys” and so it positions fire-

fighting crews and resources appropriately when

thunderstorms are predicted for the coast.

Lightning Trails

With the weather being cool our crews have the

opportunity to continue with their training and certi-

fication. Project work also continues with crews

learning new skills that will be applied later in the

season.

Weather is certainly the topic of conversation in

Coastal, and not only in reference to wildfire but

also in flooding. One unit crew from Pemberton

spent yesterday and today helping out EMBC in

anticipation of the storm approaching the coast to-

day.

This weather system carries the dynamic insta-

bility mentioned above, and may produce thunder-

storms. It is not anticipated that the thunderstorms

will produce lightning, but they may produce in-

tense, localized precipitation. Should this precipita-

tion fall over snowpacks, rapid melting could occur,

adding water to already swollen rivers.

You can follow the flood watch at:

http://emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.ca/

SYNOPSIS.. A moderately strong upper ridge currently

over southern Coastal zones will bring a mainly sunny

warm day. But heavy clouds are approaching starting over

Haida Gwaii this morning. There, rains will begin by noon,

winds will increase to 30 to 50 kph in the afternoon, and

freezing levels will rise to over 10,000 feet by evening as a

major winter type storm crashes into the coast. The same

weather will reach the Mid-coast about 6 to 10 hours later

and there the forecast models suggest up to 100 mm of rain

tonight over the outer coast islands and possibly 20 to 25

mm for Bella Coola. By noon Saturday rain has reached all

Coastal zones with the heaviest falls likely continuing over

the Mid-coast but also along outer Vancouver Island and

down the Sunshine Coast as well. By late Saturday the

rainfall is easing as the storm moves inland and loses

strength but heavy local showers will continue especially

on the coastal mountains western slopes. Flooding con-

cerns will be amplified due to rising freezing levels.

LONG TERM TREND.. After the major storm dies out

Sunday morning an onshore flow continues with generally

cloudy occasionally showery conditions for several days.

The next ridge to bring clearing and warming may not

appear for up to a week.

To Date in

Coastal

Fires to Date

Person Caused 19

Lighting Caused 0

Total Number of Fires

19

Hectares burnt 9

Number of Incidents Responded to

89

Fire Danger Rating

As of June 15, 2012

See detailed weather forecast—page 2

Page 2

To Report a

Wildfire:

1-800-663-5555

or

*5555 on

your cell