Extreme Hazard Conditions

Thank you all for your patience…it has been one week since we entered EXTREME hazard and despite some good humidity recovery in the mornings, the winds negate that effect by the afternoon. All fire weather stations around us remain at 5 (EXTREME) and the Cowichan Valley fire halls have been kept busy with mutual aid to extinguish human-caused bush fires. Ladysmith Fire had to response last week to a chap burning garden weeds with a tiger torch! Mt. Hayes, behind Ladysmith, has a small lightning strike fire still burning but we were fortunate to not have any fire starts popping up here from the lightning storm ten days ago.
This is prime vacation time, and your volunteer fire fighters also like to get off the rock and visit and go camping etc. and, since we are not a very big department and have no mutual aid coming to help us out, we appreciate your vigilance in keeping fires from starting.
It looks like we have another week of EXTREME conditions ahead of us. No High Hazard activities such as metal blade mowing, road building, gas chainsawing etc. are allowed. We should be getting back to cooler temperatures and rain soon. Just not this week. Remember, we need to drop to HIGH for three days before we can open up again to early-shift activities. We will keep you informed. TIVFD
OUTLOOK: A warming and drying trend begins Sunday across the South Coast as a ridge of high pressure builds along the Rockies. While above-seasonal temperatures are once again in the forecast, temperatures will not get as high as our current heat.
TIVFD