A summer forecast report from Environment Canada says western Canada will probably be in store for a warmer-than-normal summer.
Forecaster Armel Castellan says the updated summer forecast, which will be fully released tomorrow, says that June, July and August will likely see above normal temperatures.
“And that’s primarily true on the coast, and decreasingly probably as you go inland. But it does materialize all the way through the Prairies, so the chances are more in that 50-to-60 per cent range of probabilities above normal. The wildcard is going to be the precipitation in June, and possibly in July and August.”
Castellan says there will be a lot of pressure for June to deliver “proper rain” in B.C. and through the Prairies when it comes to the risk of wildfires.
“Because July and August are dry months and we do see convection, and that comes with lightning. And so we’re into that season where things are going to hinge a lot on a daily forecast – a daily forecast and how dry things are.”
Wildfire season has picked up in western Canada in the past two weeks In northern Alberta, a 230,000 hectare wildfire continues to burn as well as another fire more than 24,000 hectares. In B.C., at time of posting, there were 42 active fires burning in the province according to the BC Wildfire Service – varying in size from spot fires to as large as 4,300 hectares in one case in the northern part of the province.