The White Rock Lake wildfire has come within 100 to 250 metres west of Okanagan Lake, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.

That's due to the growth of the 55,000-hectare fire over the past 24 hours along its eastern flank, west of Westside Road.

"Through the evening, temperatures dropped into the mid-teens with winds out of the southwest continuing to gust upwards of 30 km/hr," the B.C. Wildfire Service reported this morning. "Today, winds on-site will be similar to yesterday, south/southwest 10-20 km/hr with gusts 25-40 km/hr.

"Isolated showers in the vicinity will provide a slight reprieve through the weekend," the update continued. "However, where sustained winds align with terrain features high spread rates and active fire behaviour is still expected."

Earlier this week, homes reportedly burned in the Monte Creek area as a result of the White Rock Lake wildfire, which is nearly half the size of the city of Vancouver.

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There are several evacuation orders in effect for the wildfire, which is 34 kilometres northwest of Vernon. Across B.C., there are orders in place for 5,650 properties.

Parts of Vernon and Kamloops are on evacuation alert, as are the City of Armstrong, the Township of Spallumcheen and the Village of Chase. B.C.-wide, there are 114 evacuation alerts for 24,944 properties.

Highway 97 is closed in both directions six kilometres north of Vernon to Monte Creek.

In addition, Westside Road is closed 38 to 46 kilometres east of West Kelowna.

Meanwhile, the 5,669-hectare July Mountain Fire south of Merritt has crossed the Coquihalla Highway. There's a travel advisory along Highway 5 between exits 228 and 250 due to low visibility from the smoke.

Rain offers temporary break

This weekend's rain has provided a small amount of relief for the 4,139 firefighters and crews battling blazes in B.C. But it's far from the end of wildfire season.

"Though the rain will help moderate fire activity for the short term, a ridge is forecast to settle over the province bringing another period of warm and dry weather," the B.C. Wildfire Service says in its seasonal outlook. "As the month progresses, current Wildfires of Note are expected to grow with potential for big spread events being when winds increase over 20 kilometres per hour."

It points out that 10 millimetres of rain over a few hours has less impact on wildfires than when 10 millimetres falls over five days.

"The reason for this is the ability of rain to infiltrate surface fuels and soils," the outlook states. "Heavy amounts of rain in a short period of time will result in runoff and less moisture influencing dry fuels."

In a 7 p.m. update on August 6, the B.C. Wildfire Service said that there were 291 wildfires burning across the province. In this fire season, 604,178 hctares have burned.