During a summer vacation when I was a child in the 1980s, I remember travelling through the Fraser Canyon in south central B.C., when I heard: “Welcome to Lytton. The hottest community in Canada today.”
It was meant as a joke, of course, but it reflected the fact that Lytton would get very hot, and often was Canada’s hot spot. Every time I heard of Lytton, I always thought of the high temperatures facing people in the village.
Canadians now know just how hot it can be in Lytton, and with tragic consequences.
We suffered through a “heat dome” in Western Canada for the past couple of weeks. In southeast Saskatchewan, the worst of that heat came in late June and early July, when temperatures eclipsed 30 C and a heat warning was issued by Environment Canada.
But our “heat dome” had nothing on B.C., where the temperatures exceeded 40 C in many communities. And the worst of that heat was in Lytton.
On June 27, Lytton eclipsed 46 C. It was the highest daytime temperature ever recorded in Canada, surpassing the 45 C experienced by the good folks in Midale and Yellow Grass on July 7, 1937.
Midale and Yellow Grass’ record stood for nearly 74 years. It took just a day for Lytton to break its own record. On June 28, it was above 47 C. And the following day, it was 49.6 C. I don’t think anyone in Lytton was celebrating the distinctions.
Several other B.C. communities had temperatures warmer than what it was in Midale and Yellow Grass that one sweltering July day.
With such high temperatures throughout the province, the conditions were timber dry. And it resulted in forest fires, including one that engulfed much of Lytton, destroying about 90 per cent of the structures in the community, and leaving at least two people dead.
You might think that being in such a stifling hot area would result in an unattractive community, but that doesn’t describe Lytton and the rest of the Fraser Canyon. It’s been nearly 30 years since I’ve been through there, but I remember it being a rather attractive region. Images of Lytton and other communities would back that up.
I can’t imagine what the people of that community are going through. Those who reside in small-town Saskatchewan understand how everybody knows everybody; it’s one of the charms, or the challenges, of small-town life, depending on your perspective. There’s only about 250 people in Lytton, with another 1,000 in the surrounding area.
Residents of the village will eventually have to return to the community and find not only their home gone, but those of neighbours, family and friends as well. And for those whose homes weren’t destroyed, their feelings must alternate between elation, relief and guilt.
There have been other forest fires burning in B.C. Some have resulted in evacuations, while others are far away from communities, but it’s still difficult to see trees destroyed that have stood for centuries.
It’s been pretty hot here, but nothing we haven’t experienced before.
We know what it’s like to have 35 C temperatures, to be in ultra-dry conditions in which it doesn’t take much to start a grass or a forest fire.
So when the provincial government declares that there is to be no fires in provincial parks or on Crown-owned land, most of us pay attention. And those who don’t should heed the warnings.
The government issued that edict because it was so dry and potentially dangerous outside.
We were lucky in the southeast to get a couple of really good rainstorms roll through that brought some serious rain, and some other briefer spells with precipitation. But a quick check of the provincial fire risk map shows that we were in the extreme risk territory until we received some rain on Monday.
And the heat dome didn’t last as long as it did elsewhere in Western Canada. Our temperatures the last couple of days have been closer to normal.
But we still need to be careful out there. Even if the fire risk isn’t extreme, use common sense. If the winds are high, don’t burn.
And don’t be a loser who flicks a cigarette from a moving vehicle. It’s not only unsightly, it’s also dangerous.
After all, nobody wants to be the one to cause a serious grass fire and put people’s homes at risk.
