Hello, pandemic summer 2021.
Record temperatures, a months-long drought across southern areas of the province, and an out-of-control wildfire in the Interior have rung in the season.
While many sa国际传媒 residents took advantage of the province鈥檚 loosening pandemic restrictions to hit campgrounds and beaches last weekend, some people living near Lytton spent the weekend on evacuation alert. The George Road wildfire, which ignited on June 16, was already burning out of control and threatening 10聽properties.
By Sunday, it had grown to 350 hectares. By Monday 鈥� the first day of summer 鈥� the evacuation alert was rescinded. However, with the past week鈥檚 heat wave across southern sa国际传媒, the fire has continued burning.
On Wednesday, the sa国际传媒 government banned most open burning in the coastal region. The prohibition applies to all public and private land. Also banned are fireworks, sky lanterns, burn barrels and air-curtain 颅burners. Recreational or ceremonial campfires less than a half-metre in size are allowed, as are 颅cooking stoves fuelled by gas, propane or briquettes.
Is this what is in store for our second pandemic summer? 颅Possibly.
Our forests and 颅communities rely on significant 颅precipitation through the month of June to dampen soils and keep 颅vegetation lush, healthy and fire resistant. June hasn鈥檛 delivered.
鈥淛une always makes or breaks the fire season for us,鈥� Coastal Fire Centre spokeswoman Dorthe Jakobsen told the Times聽Colonist mere weeks ago. 鈥淚f we get lots of rain in June, it sets us up to get through July and August fairly well.鈥�
Not only did June鈥檚 monsoons fail to materialize, precipitation stayed below normal through March, April and May.
After a soggy West Coast fall and winter, Victoria dried out with just 18, 19 and 15 mm of rain from March to May 鈥� about half what we saw during the same period last year and a third of the 154 mm normally seen on the Saanich Peninsula.
Nanaimo saw about a third of its normal springtime rain, and Campbell River just a half.
Things are equally parched in the Interior. Data for Kelowna show month after month of 颅little rain or snow 鈥� 2.6 mm in March, and 9.5 in April, following an exceptionally dry January (9.6 mm) and February (7.7 mm). Last year, the spring monsoons arrived in May (81 mm) and June (50 mm). This year, barely enough rain fell to settle the dust 鈥� just 3.5 mm in May and 9.5 mm in June.
Kamloops is drier yet. It saw 12 mm of rain in June, 1.4聽in May, and nothing at all in 颅February, March and April.
Layer that tinder-dry situation with a few weeks of hot weather. Add in hordes of people heading into the province鈥檚 woods now that they can travel 鈥� or just a few hundred tossing unextinguished cigarettes from vehicle windows along our highways.
British Columbia could ignite.
What does this mean for the pandemic?
Research last year showed that people who smoke are at higher risk of infection and 颅serious illness from the 颅COVID-19 virus. The studies looked into how tobacco smoke affects specific gateways the virus uses to infect cells in our lungs. Some of those same effects happen with wood smoke and, presumably, with wildfire smoke.
We were lucky last year. The virus raged, but our fire season was quiet. An unseasonably cool and wet June and July delayed it until August.
We sat just out of range of the scorching southern weather that saw California, Oregon and Washington go up in flames. Haze from those fires provided spectacular sunsets here, but the smoke waited until 颅September to drift over the Moat of Juan de Fuca and chase us indoors.
This year, thanks to vaccination, more and more of us have some protection from 颅COVID-19. Pandemic restrictions are lifting, businesses are opening, and we鈥檙e heading out and about.
But a bad fire season may play with that outlook. If we add wildfire smoke to sa国际传媒鈥檚 颅COVID-19 recipe, the variables could change. The hard-won 颅protection we鈥檝e gained over recent months may prove less robust than the 90-odd per cent promised of a double-shot of Pfizer or Moderna.
