2018 is the worst fire season on record!

[Glacier]

I guess there's little chance this year makes it to the #2 spot?

Well there's a massive change coming in two days. Daily highs will drop suddenly more than 10 degrees, and we will get rain. IF this period extends for more than a few days, the fires will not spread much. Remember that the length of days is shortening very quickly this time of year so nights are going to be cold even with hot days.

The only way I see us beating 1958 is if they are behind the actual figures by at least 100,000 hectares, which isn't really out of the question. A big jump in the numbers is coming tonight because they've mapped out of fires that hadn't been re-mapped in a week. Time will tell.

Edit: still very dry for today and tomorrow.

[seewood]

^^^^^ Wow, Charlottes are extreme.
I was logging there in 86 for the month of Sept and thought that was dry, but believe it was always moderate.

[Drip_Torch]

I guess there's little chance this year makes it to the #2 spot?

Oh, I think we're still in the running.

I'm still seeing a significant backlog on the mapping and there's a lot of fire on the ground right now. With the cap getting pulled off the atmospheric boundary layer and with the passage of this upper trough, things could get a little sporty before the moisture starts to take effect. I see cooler, but not a lot of precipitation, unless there's some convective cloud action happening, - and that's a double-edged sword in this fight.

[Frisk]

It looks like the whole province will get cooler temperatures and maybe rain for the foreseeable future. We're getting pretty late in the summer so this might bring everything to a close.

[alanjh595]

It looks like the whole province will get cooler temperatures and maybe rain for the foreseeable future. We're getting pretty late in the summer so this might bring everything to a close.

Let's hope so.

[Glacier]

YUGE amout of rain coming Sunday... FYI.

[Drip_Torch]

Quick update... 759,008 - still 3rd worst, but in the running for second spot. A mere 76,000 hectares away, and that might already be sitting on the ground unmapped.

[Glacier]

Quick update... 759,008 - still 3rd worst, but in the running for second spot. A mere 76,000 hectares away, and that might already be sitting on the ground unmapped.

It very well is. I'm trying to figure out where the big jump came yesterday. Nadina Lake went up 5,000 and Shovel Lake about 2,000 (up to 85,000 and 91,000 hectares now).

EDIT: Oh, wow! Alkali Lake! That's the Telegraph Creek fire. It's now pegged at 118,000 hectares!

[Drip_Torch]

A quick guestimate, without too much work going into it, Coastal alone could give that count a 15,000 to 20,000 ha bump at any moment. Somewhere around 56 OOC's listed and a few 0.1's that are four digits. As long as we don't get a really hot, dry fall with lots of wind, I'm betting 2018 secures the number two spot in history.

[Glacier]

I would say that we are already beyond the 1958 totals.

Anyway, I have to update the top 10 list now:

1) Plateau fire at 545,151 hectares in 2017 (Located west of Willams Lake and Quesnel on the Chilcotin plateau)
2) Hanceville Riske Creek fire at 241,160 hectares in 2017 (located west of Williams Lake on the Chilcotin plateau and valley)
3) Tweedsmuir Park fire at 238,000 hectares and growing in 2018 [my estimate] (located in the westernmost part of the Chilcotin plateau and up into the Rainbow Mountains)
4) Kech fire at 225,920 hectares in 1958 (located south of Watson Lake, Yukon in a Liard river tributary)
5) Elephant Hill fire at 191,865 hectares in 2017 (located around Cache Creek, Clinton, and 70 Mile House)
6) Eg fire at 182,725 hectares in 1982 (located along the Liard river and Alaska highway)
7) Chelaslie River fire at 133, 098 hectares in 2014 (located on the Nechako plateau south of Burns Lake)
8) Alkali Lake (Telegraph Creek) at 118,000 hectares in 2018
9) Tee fire at in 1971at 110,419 (located in the Liard River/Alaska Highway area)
10) Shovel Lake fire in 2018 at 91,042 hectares and growing (east of Burns Lake on the Nechako plateau)

Runner-ups (there might be others bigger than this, but these are the next largest I can find):
Wisp fire in 1950 at 90,000 hectares in BC & another 940,000 hectares in Alberta (started northeast of Fort St. John).
Nadina Lake in 2018 at 84,910 hectares and growing (southwest of Burns Lake on the Nechako plateau)
Britney Triangle/Chilko Lake fire at 66,571 hectares in 2009 (located on the western edge of the Chilcotin plateau 200km west of Williams Lake)

[tsayta]

Confirmed. #2

[Hurtlander]

How exactly does anyone know what size past fire years really was? I’ve been talking to old timers who worked in forestry and the BC Forest Service, they all claim that we had some very bad fire years in the 40’s 50’s 60’s 70’s and 80’s .. But for the most part, the amount of timber burned, especially in the 40’s 50’ and 60’s, was just a wild guess. There were some very big fires in remote areas of the NW and the north years ago that were just allowed to burn themselves out come winter, the size of those fires were never measured.. It’s not until recent history with satellite mapping that they’ve got any clue as to how much area is actually burning each year.

[Glacier]

Anything before the 1950s was a crap shoot. Fires could have burned for months up north and no one would know. Even into the 1970s it was easy to miss fires.

[Drip_Torch]

With the cooler weather and things slowing down a bit, I see they are catching up on the mapping. Currently 945,148 ha and climbing. Big jumps in the last few days.

Last year the state of emergency was extended on Sept 1 and we didn't even start noticing the Diamond creek wildfire until Sept 3. Evacuations of the Horse Lake area happened on Sept 9.

The number one spot in history is about 271,000 ha away.

[Glacier]

The number one spot in history is about 271,000 ha away.

Oh? Are you sure...