Photo: Jordan Neufeld

The BC Wildfire Service will be busy keeping an eye out for potential new wildfires following Thursday's spectacular electrical storm across the Southern Interior.

Kamloops Fire Centre fire information officer Taylor Colman, says there were 2,617 lightning strikes prior to midnight Thursday across the region.

At this point, she is unable to say how many new fires may have sparked as a result of last night's storm.

Colman did indicate 13 new lightning-caused fires had sparked as of 8:30 a.m. Thursday, however most of those were likely caused by Wednesday's storm. Only eight of those remain active.

The good news is lightning was accompanied by rain in some regions last night.

BCWS will be monitoring the region looking for new strikes.

"We do sometimes conduct fixed wing patrols, so we can work with either the other fire centres around us and patrol both centres or if there is a particular area of interest we can send them there as well," said Colman.

"We do have fire wardens that can patrol the back country but, of course the public is still our biggest protection source."

If you see smoke, call 1-800-663-5555 or *5555 on a cell.

Friday's forecast calls for a risk of more thunderstorm activity and a 40 per cent chance of showers across much of the Southern Interior.