Temperatures will be unseasonably hot — but not extremely hot — as a heat wave for coastal B.C. continues for the next seven to 10 days.
“It’s still going to be on the warm side, but the really intense heat has finally cooled off to the east,” Terri Lang, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said Wednesday.
Daytime highs are expected to be in the range of 28 C to 32 C, with overnight lows of 16 C to 18 C.
“If we take a 30-year average of temperatures at this time of year, it’s 21 C for a high and overnight low of 11 C,” Lang said. Wednesday’s forecast high was 29 C. “It’s still above average. The highs are expected to be in the mid-20s for the next seven to 10 days.”
Strong winds coming off the ocean are also expected to continue for at least a couple of days, Lang said. “Once the really hot air cools down and gets closer to the temperature of the ocean itself, it will simmer down. It’s the temperature difference that is bringing the wind.”
The dangerous heat wave began last Friday, created by an exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure over most of the province. On Monday, 43 all-time daily maximum temperature records — including a high of 39.8 C at Gonzales Point — were smashed.
The heat wave prompted health warnings and is believed to have contributed to dozens of deaths across the province. At least 233 deaths were reported from Friday through Monday at 3 p.m., about 100 more than would be expected over a four-day period, said Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe.
The prolonged high temperatures and the lower than average precipitation this spring are also increasing the risk of wildfires, said Dorthe Jakobsen, fire information officer at the Coastal Fire Centre.
“The heat is obviously drying out all the vegetation in the province and in our forests and doing it rapidly,” said Jakobsen. “We have currently increased our fire danger rating. We are at high to extreme in the Coastal Fire Centre area.”
Seven forest fires were sparked when lightning passed over northern Vancouver Island early Wednesday.
“It’s a dynamic, evolving situation. … They are all small spot fires. We’re not concerned about any of them at this time,” Jakobsen said.
An open fire and campfire ban came into effect throughout B.C. at noon Wednesday and will be in effect until mid-October. Fireworks, sky lanterns and tiki torches are also prohibited.
B.C. Hydro spokesman Steven Watson said despite the extreme heat, reservoir levels on Vancouver Island are where they should be, with the exception of the Campbell River reservoir, which is a little bit lower than normal.
“Certainly, the last four years have been drier than normal, but so far we’re doing pretty good. We’re monitoring this closely,” he said.
The Capital Regional District saw an increase in water use starting Friday, said Ted Robbins, general manager of Integrated Water Services.
“Since we’ve been experiencing the extreme temperatures, the most water consumed was on Sunday, when 273 million litres were consumed across Greater Victoria in a 24-hour period,” he said. Demand has been dcecreasing every day since then, “but it’s still pretty high.”
On Tuesday, 230 million litres were consumed in a 24-hour period. For comparison, the average daily demand in winter is 90 million litres, he said.
The Sooke Lake reservoir, the primary reservoir for Greater Victoria, is at 87.3 per cent of full storage capacity.
“Although we’ve seen this demand spike up over this past week or so, there no issues with respect to longer term water supply as we head into the summer,” Robbins said.
The reservoir provided water earlier this week to the Charters River Fish Hatchery because their flows were decreasing with the hot weather, he said.
Water has also been flowing at Michell’s Farms on the Saanich Peninsula.
“We used millions and millions and millions of gallons of water the past two weeks,” said owner Terry Michell. “Our irrigators have been going 24 hours a day non-stop. We still have water, but we’ve probably used more than double or triple than we normally use for June.”
There were a few scorched raspberries, but new ones will be ripening in the next few days, he said.
“Nothing too disastrous here. The vegetables are fine. We’ve been going round the clock, harvesting as much as we can just before it gets mature. Once it’s mature, cauliflower just turns yellow and broccoli just lays flat on the ground,” said Michell. “It’s been OK but the heat is hard on the employees.”
Ten pickers are out in the field every day, picking 1,000 to 1500 pounds of strawberries, raspberries and tayberries every day, he said.
