The weather has literally been a hot topic during this unprecedented time.
Remember all that talk about June-uary? What a difference a couple of short weeks makes.
All things considered, this is just about the worst possible time for a heat wave and record-breaking temperatures.
Remember, we’re coming off an extremely dry April and May, in particular. And that rainfall we had earlier in June is just a long gone drop in the bucket now.
The timing is the worst because we are just now 10 days into the astronomical summer. During a normal summer, the long dry spells we experience don’t start until around the middle of July at the earliest.
That means water is going to be a scarce commodity in our rivers before too long and the threat of wildfires goes off the charts.
We’ve been quite fortunate the last two summers of 2020 and 2019 with balanced weather and a moderate forest fire season. That, of course, followed two dreadful summers for forest fires in this province – in fact, the worst on record in 2017 and 2018.
So what can we expect for the balance of this summer? It’s highly likely the dry spell will be extensive, but hopefully not with these high temperatures we’ve been experiencing.
Getting into the low 40s Celsius on Vancouver Island is just unfathomable and came completely out of the blue. The current high pressure system started a month ago in the usual places of Nevada, Arizona and California but has since spread to a large chunk of the Western United States and Canada which is scary in itself that this Heat Dome has developed to that extent.
When Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles all started registering temperatures in the low-to-mid 40s, it always raises our eyebrows, but here we are in virtually the same predicament.
It can’t be emphasized enough the precautions that must be taken during this weather, even with a drop of several degrees from the peak. It can be dangerous to humans.
Humans can also be dangerous to our forests so the last thing we need is careless behaviour leading to wildfires that could spread out of control quickly.