Yesterday we drove the almost 8 hours from the Vancouver Lower Mainland to Nelson BC. On the way we went through Princeton. Heading into the city, the smell of smoke and haziness was the worst part of the trip.
Heading into Osoyoos, we could see the smoking fires in the ridge above the city.
And after arriving in Nelson, I took this photo at 7:15pm on a short walk.
My wife’s parents were supposed to join us in this quaint city that they spent most of their lives, but they changed their mind due to air quality concerns. Instead, they are vacationing at our house while we are here. Smelling the air this morning, I think they made a good choice.
The reality is that we are a province on fire.
Our record heat wave in late June, followed by freaky rainless lightning storms, then an unusually dry July have made our province a forest full of kindling, ready to go up in smoke. According to the B.C. Wildfire Dashboard right now there are 259 wildfires in BC, and 11 are new in the last 2 days.
We are not doing our planned hike this morning, instead we’ll walk along the lake. We’ll visit old stomping grounds of my wife’s youth, and we’ll probably spend a bit more time indoors than planned.
Still, we are lucky. We are safe, and so is our house. We don’t have an evacuation warning, and we aren’t worried about what to pack and what to leave behind should we have to flee our home. This is the case for many across our province.
It’s usual to be hoping for rain in the summer, but our entire province could use a good soaking, complements of Mother Nature. Rain and low winds are on the minds of many in our province, as forest fires sit on the minds of many of us. It’s hard not to think of them as you peer across hazy horizons and smell the fires burning.
