Fire Activity: 

In the past 24 hours, four fires have ignited as a re‐sult of lightning activity. All of the lightning‐caused fires are 0.009 hectares or less and are located in remote areas not near any communities or struc‐tures.   Prohibitions: 

Effective at noon on July 8, all open fires are prohib‐ited within the Southeast Fire Centre’s jurisdiction to help prevent human‐caused wildfires and protect public safety. The prohibition will remain in place until Sept. 20 or until the public is otherwise noti‐fied. Currently, campfires are not prohibited.  

Specifically, prohibited activities include: 

• The burning of any waste, slash or other mate‐rials 

• Stubble or grass fires of any size over any area 

• The use of fireworks, sky lanterns, or burning barrels of any size or description  

Out of Province Deployments: 

The Wildfire Management Branch has sent another 43 personnel to the Yukon to help with fire suppres‐sion efforts.  

One Unit Crew from the Cariboo Fire Centre, one 12‐person Incident Management Team and 11 other staff will be left on Wednesday, July 17. A total of 145 Wildfire Management Branch staff have now been deployed to the Yukon.  

The Wildfire Management Branch always maintains adequate firefighting capacity to respond to current conditions in B.C. Deployed personnel can be re‐called at any time.  

The Wildfire Management Branch also has person‐nel fighting two fires in Quebec, including two 20‐person unit crews from the Southeast Fire Centre. For more information on these deployments, please visit: www.bcwildfire.ca 

Southeast Fire Centre 2013.07.18 

 

 

Significant thunder storms have passed through the Southeast Fire Centre over the past 24 hours. The blue circles above, sym­bolize individual lightning strikes between July 17­18. 

The Wildfire Management Branch deployed  air tankers and two three­person initial attack crews to a small wildfire in a logging cut block below Fernie Ridge, southeast of Highway 3 on Mon­day, July 15. The fire is now out. 

P A G E 2

Precipitation  

Temperature   Relative Humidity 

These graphs are for informational purposes only and should not be used to base operational decisions 

Fire Danger Rating 

These maps are current for July 18, 2013.  

For the most recent weather maps, please see www.bcwildfire.ca/weather 

P A G E 3  

Most recent forecast for the Southeast 

 

Valid as of Thursday July 18, 2013

A weak upper trough (drifting southeastward along the Rockies) and its slightly unstable air mass in combination with patchy lingering moisture favours a mixture of sun & cloud and a 30-40% chance of afternoon thun-derstorms or light showers across our north today. Another weak distur-bance should clip southeastward from the central interior for similar condi-tions across our north on Friday. Otherwise a flat area of high pressure centred over Nevada-Utah should provide dry, fairly sunny and very warm conditions across the southern half or two thirds of the region both days. OUTLOOK: A dry westerly flow aloft (flat area of high pressure centred south of the border) should provide mainly sunny/clear skies and warm-very warm temperatures across the majority of the region Saturday through Monday. High temperatures ranging from 28 to 34 degrees, RH’s should drop into the teens in some areas each afternoon. A broad upper trough pushing southeastward from the north coast is a risk to clip our north (mainly the north end of the Columbia zones) with isolated showers or thunderstorms late Sunday and Monday. A tightening pressure gradient aloft could result in light to moderate winds in some areas Sunday and Monday afternoons. 6 to 10 DAY: Confidence fair. Today's medium range guidance is similar to yesterdays, small but significant timing and positioning changes are very possible. High pressure centred over the 4 corner states is sug-gested to remain in control for dry, mainly sunny and warm-very warm conditions across the majority of the region Monday through Wednesday.

BOUNDARY ZONE  TODAY: Sunny with a few afternoon clouds. MAX TEMP: 29 to 32. MIN RH: 20 to 40% 

 ARROW / KOOTENAY LAKE  TODAY: Sunny with a few bands clouds across the south. A mix of sun & cloud with a 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms or light showers Na-kusp northward. MAX TEMP: 28 to 31 MIN RH: 20 to 40%  CRANBROOK / INVERMERE  TODAY: Sunny with a few bands clouds across the south. A mix of sun & cloud with a 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms or light showers within the Invermere zone. MAX TEMP: 27 to 31 MIN RH: 15 to 35% 

 REVELSTOKE / GOLDEN  TODAY: A mix of sun & cloud. Isolated afternoon thunderstorms or light showers, mainly across the north. MAX TEMP: 25 to 28 MIN RH: 25 to 45%

Southeast Fire    Centre Statistics 

 

Totals since April 1, 2013: 

Fires to date: 49 

Hectares burned: 169 

Person caused fires:  28 

Lightning caused fires: 21 

 

2012 at this time: 

Fires to date: 28 

Hectares burned: 166 

Person caused fires:  20 

Lightning caused fires: 8 

 

2011 at this time: 

Fires to date: 29 

Hectares burned: 26 

Person caused fires: 20 

Lightning caused fires: 9 

 

P A G E 4

 

The DC is the Drought Code, measuring deeper in the ground. A number of 300 or greater indicates that the fire will burn deep into the ground, providing chal-lenges to mop up.

The Danger Class is the typical Fire Danger Class that is seen on fire signage. 1 and 2 represent Low, 3 is Moderate, 4 is High, and 5 is Extreme. A map of the cur-rent fire danger ratings is on page 3.

* If you have any questions about which station your should be monitor-ing, please contact your company for-ester or fire zone for information.  

Fine Fuel Moisture Codes 

The weather information is used to de-velop codes that are interpreted with re-gard to how dry the different classes of fuels are in the forest. From this, prepar-edness levels are set on a daily basis.

The FFMC (Fine Fuel Moisture Code) is a code which measures the dryness of fine fuels (grasses, needles, etc). A num-ber of 85 or higher indicates a good chance of a fire start from an ignition source. Once 90 or higher is reached, all the fine fuels are available to burn.

The DMC (Duff Moisture Code) meas-ures about 10 cm into the ground and is an indication of whether a fire that starts will continue to burn in the duff. A num-ber of 40 or greater would indicate that a fire will continue to burn.

CONTACT INFORMATION