An Environment Canada meteorologist says the recent few days of rain in the area will help reduce the fire risk for a while longer.

That said, Doug Lundquist notes it won’t take long for things to dry up again, especially if we see a few hot and dry days in the area.

“The really fine fuels can dry out really fast but the deeper layers of fuels and soils have gotten some moisture that they’ll hold on too for a while. That’s perhaps what the most important thing is that we’ve replenished a bit of our deficit. That speaks volumes, he said.

“We really want to get these rains that we did this year. That’s kind of what we hope for every year, and this year they’ve materialized.”

Lundquist is expecting there to be less rain in the Kamloops area this week, with highs near 30 degrees.

As for rains in July and August, Lundquist says it will mostly be in the form of thunderstorms.

“We want the rest of July to provide some precipitation for us and into August as well. That’s pretty normal so if it does dry out and stay quite dry, that can cause some concerns again but the pattern this year has been such that you know, we would probably still collect some rain even beyond this week,” Lundquist added.

In their July outlook, the BC Wildfire Service says the majority of the province is experiencing normal fuel conditions due to the precipitation during the latter half of June.

But they also note that June was still drier and warmer than normal in many areas, adding the province still has underlying drought conditions that could rapidly dry fuels once rainfall amounts diminish.