BC Wildfire Map

[Glacier]

Check out this map! Comparing 2017 to 2003 and the 2 worst years on record, 1958 and 1922. https://emergency-maps.lightship.works/ ... 7Q/details

[Drip_Torch]

OMG Glacier, the like I gave you for that last post is a severely understated.

I was aware of 1922, as a cold number of HA burned, but I never realized the extent of it, or where it burned. I want that map, I want to absorb that map, understand that map, research that map - does it come in a KMZ, or KML?

I can't believe I haven't been able to find any good fire stories from 1922, other than Sayward. I have to go back to Provincial archives now, and back through the microfiche.

I love that map!

...and suddenly, as if by magic, the concept of WUI fires as a modern problem looks a little suspect.

debunked.jpg

ETA: I'm reminded of how colourful our fire history in British Columbia really is.

For example, the Camp Sapperton Fire of June 1864. The story starts to unfold a couple years earlier with the establishment of the New Westminster Fire Department (Hyack Company No 1) in 1862, and the delivery of a Fire King engine from San Francisco in April 1863.

The Sapperton Fire was the result of an ember storm caused by an intense forest fire consuming timber and slashing around the camp. The theatre and three homes were immediately engulfed in the camp, situated approximately 1 mile from the Hyack hall. The camps First Nations neighbours weren't going to have any part of waiting for the horses to be saddled, or the engine to be tethered, and instead the group grabbed the Fire King and pulled it to the fire in a flat out run. It's said the engine was delivering water within 9 minutes of the initial outbreak.

As a result of the fire the "Camp and Sapperton hook and ladder company" was formed with 34 members.

[Glacier]

In the entire Chilcotin, an area larger than the Okanagan, there are only 3 communities not currently on evacuation alert or order.

[rustled]

Looking at those maps sure puts it in perspective.

Looks like beetle kill may have been a very significant contributing factor?

[Glacier]

Looking at those maps sure puts it in perspective.

Looks like beetle kill may have been a very significant contributing factor?

It could be. My mom says there's a lot of deadfall in the bush. The trees have been dead for 5 to 10 years, and new ones have grown up in their place, but the dead ones laying on the ground do add fuel to the fire. It's hard to say what it would be like without the beetle kill though. It's been so dry that anything could burn. Much of the Hanceville Riske Creek fire is 100% douglas fir. Further west in the Kleena Kleene fire there's a lot of fir at lower elevations and pine mixed with spruce at higher elevations, and that fire is "only" about the size of the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Fire.

[Glacier]

What the hell!? You'd think a government website would be metric by now! Nope, it's only half metric!

feetormeters.jpg

[rustled]

^^Something for the dinosaurs among us. I still do better in imperial.

I like the way you can turn various layers off and on with this map.

[tsayta]

^^Something for the dinosaurs among us. I still do better in imperial.

I like the way you can turn various layers off and on with this map.

Me too. Plus I'm only 24 years old in celcius

[Glacier]

Massive reduction in the fire danger rating yesterday, especially in the Cariboo.

Saturday rating:

drSept2.png

Yesterday's rating:

drsep3.png

[Glacier]

largestfiressp6.png

[JagXKR]

Where is Diamond Creek? 5500 ha would be in the middle of the list.

[Glacier]

Where is Diamond Creek? 5500 ha would be in the middle of the list.

Good point. This was just copied from the webpage, and they didn't have it up then. I notice Elephant Hill is pushing 200,000 hectares now. Big rain event coming for the Cariboo tonight. Up to 20mm. Good bye fires.

Oh, and yesterday's fire danger rating...

dr-sept5.png

No, wait, that was the 5th. Here is yesterday...

dr spet6.png

[Glacier]

Okay, so looking at the Elephant Hill map, it looks like 2/3rds the fire is in the Cariboo. Therefore, over 1,000,000 hectares have burned in the Cariboo. The rest of the province combined is 169,000 hectares.

[Glacier]

The 5 largest fires in BC this year were all in the Cariboo (only 2/3 of Elephant Hill though).

CaribooFireCentreFires.jpg

[Glacier]

Well the second largest fire in BC history is no longer a "wildfire of note" or an "active fire."

Just for fun, here are two different ways of quantifying this year's fire season...

areaburnedsept18.png

fires2017.png