B.C.’s fire season moderated by recent weeks of cool weather
Published 6:00 pm Tuesday, September 22, 2026
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
|
After an intense summer wildfire season, rain and cooler weather in late August and early September moderated fire behaviour across British Columbia, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
Neal McLoughlin, superintendent of predictive services with BCWS, said fire activity in the B.C. Interior peaked in July and August.
However, while precipitation has helped, fire activity continues and underlying drought concerns remain present.
Dryer-than-normal conditions are expected during the fall, with the potential for above-normal fire activity later in fall.
Warm and dry winter conditions could also affect drought and snow pack levels.
Several areas of the province had above-average drought conditions, including the Chilcotin, Lower Thompson, Okanagan, Vancouver Island and the northeast.
Since the fire season began on April 1, British Columbia has had 1,420 wildfires, burning 477,521 hectares.
The fire season in 2026 has been intense, with some fires affecting populated areas. The Kalamoir Park Fire burned near West Kelowna in June.
Then, in August, the Pear Lake fire near Clinton, a wildfire near Vernon and the Bald Range wildfire near Summerland resulted in evacuations.
Of the wildfires recorded this year, 62 per cent are the result of lightning strikes, 35 per cent were human-caused and the rest are of undetermined origin.
The amount of land destroyed by wildfires in 2026 is lower than in recent years.
In 2025, wildfires burned 886,410 hectares. In 2024, the total was 1,081,159 hectares and in 2023, wildfires destroyed 2,896,204 hectares. The 2023 wildfire season is the most destructive ever recorded in British Columbia.
The 20-year average is 530,160 hectares of land destroyed by fire in British Columbia.
During the past winter, the snow pack was lower than normal.
As of May 1, the provincial snow pack was at 83 per cent of normal, with much lower snow measurements recorded in the Okanagan, Similkameen, South Coast and Vancouver Island regions.