British Columbia State of Emergency | A province on fire

There's a state of emergency in British Columbia. And if you have been following the news in British Columbia at all, you can take a guess as to what the emergency is.

Wildfires are sweeping across the province, and thousands are currently affected by evacuation orders, 3,000 people to be exact.

By the numbers, over 560 wildfires are raging as I speak. Ottawa has sent 200 of their own firefighters to B.C. in order to help combat the firestorms.

There have been over 1,800 since April 1, and 400 of those fires are human caused. That is, they were 100 per cent preventable and never had to happen.

380,000 hectares of forest have burned this year, already. That’s the size of 940 Stanley Parks. 2018 is currently the fourth worst season for wildfires.

Number 1? That was last year, 2017. Where over 1.2 million hectares of forest burned. To put that amount of land into perspective, over one per cent of the entire province of B.C. was on fire last year.

With winds in Canada sweeping from west to east, we can expect wildfire smoke to make its way as far as Ontario. Even residents in Washington State were complaining about smoke from up north filling their skies.

You may have noticed a red or orange tint in the sky when the sun shines through the smoke. That happens because light of longer wavelength, so red light, is able to penetrate the smokey sky. While light of a shorter wavelength, such as blue light, gets scattered easily.

So how do wildfires even start?

Well, with this many wildfires, it’s a combination of both natural and human error.

British Columbia has had an incredibly hot and dry summer, and any spark can trigger a forest consuming blaze.

This spark can be from a lightening storm, or a cigarette butt that wasn’t snuffed out fully. But it's impossible to talk about wildfires today without also talking about climate change.

Experts say forest fires are more frequent, and more intense, because our summers are hotter and drier.

Yes, forest fires happen all the time, and they are an important step in the natural life cycle of a forest. But it’s undeniable that the frequency and intensity of wildfires are increasing.

Of the largest 11 wildfire seasons in British Columbia since 1950, five of them have come since 2010.

It’s not just in B.C., fires burn bright all along the west coast of North America — with current wildfires in California being the largest the state has ever faced. This year, alone, California has seen over 8,000 forest fires, covering over 370,000 hectares — about the same area as the fires we’re seeing in BC.

And the heat doesn’t seem to be relenting anytime soon.

British Columbia will be entering it’s fifth heat wave of the season this weekend. It’s going to be a long summer on the west coast.