2014 is the 10th worst wildfire year in the last 95 years

Mount McAllister Fire as from near Chetwynd recently

These are the top ten years for area of forest burned in BC

Year Number  Area Burned Avg Fire Size 
    of fires in hectares  in hectares
1958  3,058   835,848      273.3
1922  2,591   634,772      245.0
1925  2,521   414,305      164.3
1930  2,271   402,646      177.3
1928  1,642   368,103      224.2
1971  2,893   351,890      121.6
1982  2,205   348,663      158.1
1950  1,515   343,274      226.6
2010  1,673   337,149      201.5
2014  1,242   311,996      251.2 - to Aug 19th 

The data comes from the Ministry of Forests

There has been rain in various parts of the interior over the last few days but the forecast is for it to be dry for the week to come.   Rain is not always goo because the southern interior has a thunderstorm warning today.  Thunderstorms will cause new fires.

Realistically we are likely to see another month of burning in BC and 2014 could still become the third most destructive fire year in BC. 

In the 17 years from 1986 to 2002 a total of 236,252 hectares burned.  The 2003 fire season alone was bigger than that with 265,053 hectares being burned but 2003 was not a one off.   In last 12 years there have been five years with more than 200,000 hectares burned and seven with more than 100,000 hectares burned.

China Nose Fire

Mount McAllister Fire has been burning since July 12th