Put away your sunglasses and clean out your gutters. The dry, hot summer is transitioning into fall, and a significant wind and rain storm is forecast for Sunday night and Monday morning.
The storm will affect Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, north of Saltery Bay.
Residents of west and north Vancouver Island can expect winds of up to 90 kilometres an hour, and the inner south coast could see winds of 40 km/h and gusts up to 60 km/h.
The west coast is expected to get the most rainfall, with up to 50 mm forecast; 30 mm is forecast near the northern Strait of Georgia and less than 10 mm for Greater Victoria and the Gulf Islands. Winds coming off the Pacific Ocean and the rain will likely dispel the haze that has appeared in the region in recent days that has been caused by Washington state wildfire smoke.
“This summer has certainly been warmer and drier than normal for Vancouver Island,” said Alyssa Charbonneau, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
While no records were broken, the weather station at Comox recorded its fourth warmest summer on record, with the Victoria airport reporting its fifth warmest year.
The region has seen only brief periods of rain so far this month, with the airport weather station recording only 7.9-millimetres to Sept. 20, versus 31.1 mm for September last year.
“We are certainly behind the curve,” said Charbonneau.
While the rain will bring relief to parched trees and foliage, the high winds present a danger.
“This will be the region’s first real storm and the first test for trees who have suffered through a summer of drought,” said Charbonneau. “The wind will likely knock down limbs, so people should be careful [walking underneath trees].”
While the forecast for precipitation is welcome, the B.C. Wildfire Service isn’t ready to call an end to the wildfire season. “We still have 83 active wildfires, with 42 of them listed as out of control in the coastal region,” said Donna MacPherson, a spokesperson with the Coastal Fire Centre, one of six regional fire centres in the province.
“Across the province, we have battled 363 fires to date, compared with the 10-year average of 223. The coastal region (which includes Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and the south coast of the province) has seen 176 fires to date. The fires have burned 88,789 hectares of timber to date.”
While this weekend’s rain will bring relief, she is looking for a particular weather pattern before she can relax. “What I am looking for is a certain weather pattern that accompanies the jet stream. This weather pattern features a series of low pressure systems reaching the province one after another in a sort of a conveyor belt,” said MacPherson, who has been with the wildfire service since 2003.
She said that she relaxes as soon as the cycle of regular rainfall returns. “I hope it will be a real soaker of a winter.”
Trees have burned at high intensity in this summer’s wildfires. “When trees burn at a high intensity and the ground is dry enough, the fire burns down into the root system, smouldering underground over the winter. Every spring we have crews revisiting last year’s hot spots, looking for wisps of smoke, which indicate an underground fire,” said MacPherson.
“That’s why some of the dots [indicating a fire] you see on our wildfire map stay up so long.”
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
