Image Credit: J.A.G. Photography

Only one new wildfire started in the Kamloops Forest District in the last 24 hours. That comes despite the fact there was thunder and lightning through much of the region last evening, June 28.

“Lightning, when comes into an area where there is dry lighting, there is a possibility that these starts can happen,” Shaele Stearn, a fire information officer with BC Wildfire Service, told iNFOnews today. “As of right now, there is only one new start and I’m not sure if that’s lightning caused. It’s still under investigation at this point.”

The fire is in the Lytton Creek area at Stein Mountain. It was discovered at 5:27 p.m. yesterday and is considered out of control at 0.009 hectares. That doesn’t mean the region has totally dodged the lightning bullet.

“There’s also the possibility that (fires) might not start right away,” Stearn said. “It can take a few days to gauge how many fires start from a lightning strike. We definitely monitor the area where we do see lightning come through for a few days to make sure there is no holdover.”

So far there have been 546 wildfires in BC with the Donnie Creek fire north of Fort St. John breaking the record as the largest in BC’s history. It’s currently at 574,511 ha and still burning out of control.

There have been 91 wildfires in the Kamloops Fire District this year but only four are active at this time. Of the 95 fires that are currently active across the province, 49 are burning out of control. Of those active fires, 59 are in the Prince George Fire Centre which stretches up to the Yukon border.

While the Thompson-Okanagan may have escaped lightning caused fires overnight, there’s still a risk of thunderstorms later today and tomorrow afternoon, according to the Environment Canada. The forecast calls for sunshine on Friday through Tuesday, at least, with temperatures fluctuating between the low 30s and high 20s Celsius.

That’s a far cry from the heat dome that peaked on this day in 2021 when Kamloops hit 47.3 Celsius, Kelowna reaching 45.7 C and Lytton setting a Canadian record at 49.6 C.

READ MORE: One more day of the heat wave pushes Okanagan and Canadian records even higher

It has been drier this June than in 2021 and drier than in most recent years. No rain was recorded at the weather stations from Kamloops to Penticton yesterday.

The other thing the Thompson-Okanagan has missed experiencing this year – except for a few days in May – is smoke. That’s currently moving east as far as Europe.

CNN reports that more than 80 million people from the Midwest to the East Coast are under air quality alerts from Canadian wildfires, prompting beach closures, warnings of reduced visibility and calls for people to stay indoors.

Air quality alerts have been issued for all of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Delaware and Maryland as well as parts of Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and North Carolina.

Environment Canada has issued air quality alerts for many parts of Ontario and Quebec. Toronto is regularly recording some of the worst air quality in the world.

READ MORE: Canadian wildfires send smoke south, triggering air quality warnings

Emissions from Canadian wildfires so far this year have been the highest in the 21 years that Copernicus, a division of the European Union’s space program, has been keeping records, creating an estimated 160 megatonnes of carbon emissions.

The smoke has now crossed the Atlantic but, the agency notes, such smoke tends to be at higher elevations, creating hazy skies. It is not expected to have a significant impact on ground-level air quality.

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