Blanket of ash that fell on B.C.’s capital region was not from Mount St. Helens: officials

Questions were being asked on southern Vancouver Island Wednesday after much of the region was covered in ash.

Speculation swirled Wednesday morning as ash fell from the smoky sky in B.C.’s capital region.

People like Frank Jantzon, who lives in Langford, found their vehicles dotted with black flecks.

“My car was covered in ash,” said Jantzon. “There was ash on the car and also ash coming down in the air as well.”

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada the source of the smoke was the massive Bear Gulch wildfire, estimated at nearly 50 square kilometres, burning in Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula.

As for the source of the ash, rumours started circulating that a volcano was the source.

“What I can tell you is that we got reports of what we call resuspended volcanic ash at Mount St. Helens,” said Dov Bensimon, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The event was captured on web cam by the US Geological Survey on Tuesday. Ash from the volcano’s 1980 eruption could be seen being lifted thousands of kilometres in the air by a strong windstorm.

When Bensimon heard the speculation that the ash had made it’s way to Vancouver Island he had his doubts.

“It might extend a few, tens of kilometers from the source but it typically doesn’t get transported further than that,” said the meteorologist.

“Victoria is about 250 kilometres from Mount. St. Helens, that is a little further than I would expect to see ash transported unless it was an actual eruption which it wasn’t,” he added.

He says the ash that blanketed southern Vancouver Island came from the same source as the smoke, the Bear Gulch wildfire.

“The plume from that forest fire is headed due north directly over Victoria,” said Bensimon. “Of course if someone is seeing ash and hears about Mount St. Helens, I understand why people may think there may be a link. We had to investigate and it’s only after some investigation that we were able to say that, ‘No, these are two different things.’”