It cooled off a little bit, but the heat is coming back, and that’s just not good. July has had zero mm of measurable rain (which is weird because it poured the other day down at the hatchery for a short period, and I mean it POURED! But that’s against the mountains and the measurements are recorded at the airport, so there’s that, and it pretty much steamed off in a couple of hours.)
We only had 20mm in June, and 16mm in May.
It’s dry.
Scary dry.
This is a rain forest, without adequate rain.
When I first moved here it never occurred to me that I’d be looking at the nearby forest in fear of it going up in flames. Now that’s a regular thought when summer arrives. And there are areas of the province far, far, drier than we are here. So more heat is not what we need. The province is burning out of control, and it’s only the middle of fire season. The largest fire in BC history is still going strong up north, its over half a million hectares…over 5,000 square kilometres have burned. The fire is basically the size of Prince Edward Island.
Two days ago a fire started not far from my brother’s place in Cranbrook, about 10km away as the crow flies. And hour later it was 100 hectares. Overnight it ballooned to 800 hectares. And it’s not even really terribly dry there yet.
Now the heat is coming back.
Stay cool, stay hydrated.
That’s a wish as much for people as it is for the environment.
