B.C. firefighters will be battling the wind on Saturday.
A widespread cold front is expected to hit southern B.C. and the winds will come with it, providing a tough test for the 3,100 personnel battling fires across the province.
“We are definitely concerned with the forecast for the weekend,” said Chief Fire Information Officer, Kevin Skrepnek. “There’s a widespread cold front passage for most of southern BC expected to start Saturday afternoon, so we’re going to be looking at some strong and sustained winds that are going to come with that system.”
He added that “given how crucial wind is to fire activity, that is definitely a concern right now.”
With the cold front’s arrival around 48 hours away, Skrepnek says they’re keeping a close eye on it, but already planning for it to be a real challenge to their efforts.
Adding to the bad news, no more than a few scattered showers of rain are expected for southern B.C.
“There’s likely going to be a smattering of rain here and there,” said Skrepnek. “But I would say at this point based on what we’re seeing in the forecast it’s going to be fairly negligible.”
Since April 1st, 617 wildfires have burned 111,285 hectares of land in B.C.
The known cost so far is $66.1 million, but that only includes money spent by the BC Wildfire Service.
