Despite a wetter-than-average end to July, weather in the North Peace stayed on trend with the previous years’ dryness and precipitation levels, meaning the recent relief in drought conditions is temporary.
Environment Canada said there was 30-50 mm of precipitation reported by Fort St John’s climate station in the last two weeks of July. A spokesperson for the agency said the rain bettered the situation, but long-lasting drought conditions demand more.
“This influx of moisture over the last few weeks, it’s certainly helped – although, overall, there’s still a long-term deficit, and it has been that way, more or less, for the last three years,” said a spokesperson for Environment Canada’s national severe weather access line.
Compared to the monthly standard, the northeast 66 per cent of its average precipitation in July, Environment Canada said this is because the first two weeks saw very little rain.
After these initial weeks of dryness, the city of Dawson Creek enacted stage two water conservation measures on July 25. Kevin Henderson, the city’s CAO, said limited moisture in the summer and low snow in the winter puts pressure on the city’s limited water supply.
“It’s just the cumulative effects (of low precipitation) put a lot of stress our source, which is the Kiskatinaw River, and we’re seeing levels drop in the river,” he explained.
Henderson said the measures are still new, hence, the city could not comment on if they have been effective thus far – though he remarked on the recent rainfall and how it encouraged residents to abide by the city’s new twice-weekly lawn watering regulation.
Watering is generally restricted for residents of Dawson Creek in the summer, from May until October they are only permitted to water their lawn every other day.
Moving forward, if the drought continues, the CAO said the city is prepared to enact their third stage of water conservation measures, which allows once-a-week lawn watering, among other, stricter versions of current guidelines.
“The next steps are really dependent on what the weather does. If we continue to have hot, dry weather for an extended period of time, we will continue to see the water levels drop,” said Henderson.
“If we see that the flows in the river are below that and we’re not able to match the demand, that means we’re going to start relying on our stored water in our reservoirs – and that starts to become a bit of a concern for us.”
Environment Canada said temperatures in the region were on par with the average – and July was the 38th driest month since the agency began recording Fort St John’s climate data in 1910.
Wildfire risk in the area is expected to be elevated because of this ongoing drought – the B.C. Wildfire Service reported a moderate danger of wildfires in Fort Nelson and Chetwynd.
The station in Osborne, located 70 km east of Fort St John, reported a low wildfire danger level.
