British Columbia saw just under 10,000 lightning strikes last month, down from a monthly average of 15,000.

Environment Canada Forecaster Armel Castellan says there were 42,000 strikes nationwide, instead of the usual 166,000 – the lowest ever for May on record.

The Kamloops area saw a very active May with about 1,600 strikes, and Castellan says depending on who you ask, it either good or bad news.

“A farmer who would like to take the chance on hail, I think they would probably take that chance,” he said. “However, if you are coroner and you want to see fewer deaths because of the exposure of the public to lightning strokes, then having quieted down lightning activity is certainly favourable.”

The Kamloops area – that’s a 50 km radius around the city of Kamloops – saw 530 strikes last year, 340 in May 2017 and under 200 in May 2016. You’ll have to go back to May 2015 for another active month of lightning in the Kamloops area – where there were about 2,000 strikes.

On the wildfire front, Castellan says things could flare up depending on a variety of conditions, and not just the lightning.

“The perfect storm is when there is dryness, there is obviously a trigger for lightning or thunderstorms and also the wind elements, then you can have one or two days or intense lightning and that would be enough to create a really bad situation,” Castellan added.

“You can have wetness associated with the lightning because its falling embedded in a wet storm in which case they don’t really have an impact on the wildfire starts.”

Looking ahead, he said it’s hard to predict the next few months will look like.

“May is really just the start of the convective season and we certainly peak in later June, July and the start of August,” Castellan said. “This is just the beginning and we could make up for the two-thirds of the normal that we saw in May during the peak of the season.”

(Photo: Pixabay)