[6] On June 30, 2021, the day after Lytton set a Canadian all-time high temperature record of 49.6 °C (121.3 °F), a wildfire swept through the community, destroying most structures.

Coupled with inadequate insurance payouts and local record-breaking floods, residents were running out of time to restore the village.

[10] Novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens and was one of the pioneers of the historical novel, exemplified by his most popular work, The Last Days of Pompeii.

Though he was a popular author in the 19th century, fewer people today are aware of his prodigious body of literature, which spans many genres.

In the 21st century, he may be better known as the namesake for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC), sponsored annually by the English Department at San Jose State University, which challenges entrants "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels."

In 1858, Governor James Douglas named the town after Bulwer-Lytton "as a merited compliment and mark of respect."

[12]: 158 On August 30, 2008, the Village of Lytton invited Henry Lytton Cobbold, the great-great-great-grandson of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, to defend the great man's honour by debating Professor Scott Rice, the sponsor of the BLFC, on the literary and political legacies of his great ancestor.

During summer heat waves, Lytton is often the hottest spot in Canada, despite its location north of 50°N in latitude.

[19][20][21] Before the 2021 heat wave occurred, Lytton, along with the nearby community of Lillooet, shared the second-highest temperature ever recorded in Canada.

[24] While reporting on the new records in 2021, Global News noted that the official Environment and Climate Change Canada weather station is located in the shade and is about 1 °C (1.8 °F) cooler than the rest of the village.

Lytton receives 430.6 mm (16.95 in)[26] of annual precipitation on average, making it much drier than communities to the south but certainly wetter than some of the driest spots in the BC interior, such as Ashcroft, Kamloops, Spences Bridge, and Osoyoos.

Maximum precipitation occurs in the cooler months, with late autumn and early winter constituting the wettest time of the year.

Open coniferous forests of Douglas fir and ponderosa pine dominate the slopes around Lytton.

The Canadian National Railway crosses both the Fraser and Thompson Rivers on two large steel bridges at Lytton.

The current Council comprises the following members: Originally part of the Lillooet provincial riding, then part of Yale-Lillooet, Lytton is now in the provincial riding of Fraser-Nicola, represented by Jackie Tegart of BC United, who first won in the 2013 election.

The single main employer in the village produced forestry products and was forced to close because of market uncertainties in 2007.

A provincial campsite, Skihist Provincial Park, adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway six kilometres north of the village, has space for tenting as well as RVs and enjoys one of the few views available of Skihist Mountain, the highest summit of the Lillooet Ranges, across the Fraser to the west of Lytton.

The privately run Jade Springs Restaurant, also east of the village on the Trans-Canada, burned down in the fire of June 2021.