Heat building into dry British Columbia interior

Friday, August 25, 2017, 9:48 AM - As a ridge building across the western United States moves into British Columbia, heat will return to the province's dry interior.

Meanwhile, a Gulf of Alaska low-pressure system will bring showers across the north coast after Friday.

While remnants of tropical cyclone Kenneth will be directed by high pressure onto the south coast just shy of a week afterwards, rainfall totals will not be significant.

Roughly 1,100 people were evacuated from the Philpott Road area on Thursday night as a new 380 hectare fire was discovered nearby, about 20 km east of Kelowna.

The fire was classified as "out of control" by the B.C. Wildfire Service, who where on scene to battle the blaze along with airtanker and helicopter support.

Plateau fire is now largest fire ever recorded in B.C.

Nineteen fires have merged in the Interior near Williams Lake to form the largest blaze on record for the province. The so-called Plateau fire is estimated to span more than 467,000 hectares, and stretches 130 km end to end. More than 400 firefighters and two incident command teams were assigned to fight the massive blaze.

British Columbia's extended a state of emergency on August 20, the third time this summer, as the province continues to battle its worst wildfire season ever on record.

BC Wildfire Service announced on Sunday that the state of emergency would be extended until Sept. 1 due to the ongoing threat of fires.

Watch below: How many wildfires are started by humans?

About 130 fires are active, and more than 1.2 million hectares of land has been burned in British Columbia since the season's official start on April 1, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service. That's markedly above the 855,968 hectares that burned in 1958, the previous worst season since 1950.

“This year is far and away the worst we’ve ever seen in terms of the hectares burned,” chief wildfire information officer Kevin Skrepnek told Global News last week.

Thousands of firefighters have been battling the flames, and the struggle has ebbed and flowed. Air quality in the province has suffered for weeks, and some $315 million has been spent on pushing back the flames, which CBC says is not far off from 2009's $382 million.

WATCH BELOW: RCMP have suspects in custody for allegedly starting fires in Williams Lake, B.C.