Recent searches
Search options
Administered by:
“#BC.’s hot, dry #summer could be setting the province up for a catastrophic #flooding event similar to the one that occurred during the #AtmosphericRivers in November 2021.
The comments came during an update on current wildfire and drought conditions. Bowinn Ma, minister of emergency management and climate readiness, said weather in the weeks and months ahead will determine the potential for fall #flooding and whether drought conditions continue into next year.” https://mastodon.roitsystems.ca/@bcinfo/111025697811564145
“I want to emphasize how significant the #drought that #BritishColumbia is facing is,” Ma said. “It is unlike any kind of drought conditions the province has ever faced and, in my opinion, truly is a sleeping giant of a natural disaster.”
The province has seen sustained higher-than-average temperatures and low rainfall this year, leading to B.C.’s worst wildfire season on record. Since April 1, more than 2,000 wildfires across the province have burned 2.2 million hectares, Ma said.”
“She called the numbers “astronomical” and said the full extent of the damage is not yet known.
“What we’re seeing right now are the consequences, the very real impacts, of #ClimateChange,” Ma said. “As a province, we’re used to having plentiful access to beautiful clean water and we have not necessarily developed, as a province, the #conservation mentality that we will now need to develop.”
“While Boyd said it’s difficult to forecast beyond 10 to 12 days, the hydrologist added that B.C. is moving into an #ElNiño winter, a weather pattern associated with warmer temperatures and potentially wetter conditions.
If El Niño does bring higher-than-average #rainfall, it could spell disaster in areas impacted by this summer’s #wildfires, he said.”
“That time is fast approaching in the north, Boyd added, where the ground could freeze in a little over a month.
“We can start to get into freeze-up in mid-October to early November for those areas,” he said. “The reality is that they also don’t typically get that much precipitation in the months ahead.”
It makes it likely that some areas of the province will carry drought conditions into the new year”
“As the days shorten, it’s hoped that cooler temperatures and higher humidity will assist firefighting efforts, he said. But the province isn’t out of the woods yet, as potential remains for another high-pressure system in the weeks ahead.
On Wednesday, about 3,800 people remained under evacuation order in B.C. and 34,000 more were under evacuation alert.”