August 2023 Forecasts and Discussions

[Weather101]

John, Didn't you say fire season was over in June ? .

I just wanna call out bullshit

[Hawk]

When was the last time I made any comment even somewhat related to climate change? And am I not allowed to share my opinion?

To be fair, I could say the same thing to you. We ALL know climate change is real. The debate is whether to not it's an emergency and driven primarily by humans.

To be honest, your response to my post was way over the top and came across to me as being unnecessarily rude. If you don't like what I have to say, then just ignore my post. To accuse me of low-key gaslighting because I shared an opinion different than yours is quite disrespectful and ridiculous.

"ignore" like i did several years ago. Simple solution.

[John]

"ignore" like i did several years ago. Simple solution.

How do you ignore is that an option?

[Hawk]

How do you ignore is that an option?

Click on the Users name, then new window opens up. Click on "Add Foe" and done

[Hawk]

forest fires in the interior will always be a problem. Not sure why the government doesnt cut a 500m buffer around major cities like Kelowna and limit forested areas in town to "stop" the fire from engulfing the entire town. Or keep the forests and have thousands lose their home and billions of dollars in damage
i dunno..just a thought

[wetcoast91]

forest fires in the interior will always be a problem. Not sure why the government doesnt cut a 500m buffer around major cities like Kelowna and limit forested areas in town to "stop" the fire from engulfing the entire town. Or keep the forests and have thousands lose their home and billions of dollars in damage
i dunno..just a thought

Tree roots keep the soil and rock in place. Remove the trees and you speed up erosion and get massive land and rock slides.

There is no silver bullet solution.

[Bonovox]

I remember doing some research on this a few years ago and the newer and smaller planes now are actually more efficient and effective. They drop water more accurately and can do more round trips in a short period of time. The smaller bombers also can be used while ground crews are on scene while the mars bombers forced ground crews to pull back for safety. The mars bombers were also handicapped by size in that they had limited lakes large enough to land safely on.

Precisely! The air tractors are also far easier to maintain and like you said, have the ability to get into places the Mars Bomber could not.

[stuffradio]

Sadly a couple of my brother-in-laws siblings/parents houses burned down in one of the forest fires yesterday (not the Kelowna one). I also have a cousin who was ordered to be evacuated in Keremeos.

[Pomoman]

Smelling very smoky now as it slowly penetrates the lower levels. Sigh.

[PortKells]

Tree roots keep the soil and rock in place. Remove the trees and you speed up erosion and get massive land and rock slides.

There is no silver bullet solution.

I think some of us have seen too many movies where there is a simple solution without too much nuance. Hence they are very confused with saying things like "why not use the biggest planes??" "Why not just cut down the trees??" "Its so simple!!"

Or maybe there is some copium in assuming the leaders are all completely clueless and if we just install the smart people (such as ourselves) we will suddenly figure it all out. When the reality is the politicians are basically no more or less corrupt and stupid than any other profession.

I have been guilty of this myself, I figured some more controlled burning would go a long way to solving the problem. But its a bandaid solution. These kinds of conditions are next to impossible to stop fires in. We've unleashed a monster and there's no hero to come and save us.

[wetcoast91]

I think some of us have seen too many movies where there is a simple solution without too much nuance. Hence they are very confused with saying things like "why not use the biggest planes??" "Why not just cut down the trees??" "Its so simple!!"

Or maybe there is some copium in assuming the leaders are all completely clueless and if we just install the smart people (such as ourselves) we will suddenly figure it all out. When the reality is the politicians are basically no more or less corrupt and stupid than any other profession.

I have been guilty of this myself, I figured some more controlled burning would go a long way to solving the problem. But its a bandaid solution. These kinds of conditions are next to impossible to stop fires in. We've unleashed a monster and there's no hero to come and save us.

The fact that people think there's space lasers or some socialist driven coordinated effort to burn up the planet is proof we need mass mental instutions and better education.

We want to believe there's an easy way out of our issues. I do think we prefer solutions that don't impact the way we live or do things.

Speaking of solutions...I have seen it all the past 72 hours. Cloud seeding, deforesting the BC mountains, building concrete homes, relocating cities and building artificial rivers and channels around towns and cities, genocides to reduce the population.

[Typeing3]

Tree roots keep the soil and rock in place. Remove the trees and you speed up erosion and get massive land and rock slides.

There is no silver bullet solution.

Big issue is many of the area(s) in question were traditionally grasslands with sparse ponderosa pine coverage, which self regenerated through frequent low-moderate intensity fires. Forest encroachment down the hillsides during the past century (in the Okanagan, Thompson, East Kootenay-Columbia, etc valleys) coupled with sustained increases in development and agriculture (see before and after pictures of Oliver as a vivid example of this) are some of the reasons why the fastest disappearing ecosystem in BC in the present day are grasslands (see more https://mgem-library.forestry.ubc.ca/gr ... ng-peiyao/).

This shift has lead to longer periods without fire and when they do occur, they have an increased tendency to be catastrophic, as we saw in 2003 and at present. Add in increases in erosion following the fires and large swaths of hillsides are now susceptible to mudslides whenever there's a heavy rain event -- note: this is something that's actually fairly common around Cache Creek, but is obviously far more of concern to a place like Kelowna.

At the end of the day, there is no solution as you mentioned. These are regions that are ideal for large population centres and agriculture, especially relative to large portions of the rest of the province and country that are essentially uninhabitable.

[Hawk]

Tree roots keep the soil and rock in place. Remove the trees and you speed up erosion and get massive land and rock slides.

There is no silver bullet solution.

ummm No perfect solution i agree..so then let the entire city get torched instead like Kelowna today? Cant stop the fires..they are always going to happen periodically.

[Bonovox]

Local air quality beginning to deteriorate.

[wetcoast91]

Big issue is many of the area(s) in question were traditionally grasslands with sparse ponderosa pine coverage, which self regenerated through frequent low-moderate intensity fires. Forest encroachment down the hillsides during the past century (in the Okanagan, Thompson, East Kootenay-Columbia, etc valleys) coupled with sustained increases in development and agriculture (see before and after pictures of Oliver as a vivid example of this) are some of the reasons why the fastest disappearing ecosystem in BC in the present day are grasslands (see more https://mgem-library.forestry.ubc.ca/gr ... ng-peiyao/).

This shift has lead to longer periods without fire and when they do occur, they have an increased tendency to be catastrophic, as we saw in 2003 and at present. Add in increases in erosion following the fires and large swaths of hillsides are now susceptible to mudslides whenever there's a heavy rain event -- note: this is something that's actually fairly common around Cache Creek, but is obviously far more of concern to a place like Kelowna.

At the end of the day, there is no solution as you mentioned. These are regions that are ideal for large population centres and agriculture, especially relative to large portions of the rest of the province and country that are essentially uninhabitable.

I agree but one point of contention is that some records suggests ponderosa pine's being more vast in the impacted areas. Core samples out that way do suggest more extensive root structures under a lot of grasslands.

There's a reason why permanent homes and structures were never built in the hills. I'm shocked at the amount of sprawl going up the hills in the Okanagan and why this is being permitted.