Wildfires are part of life in Canada with a whole dept. and warning system in place from Natural Resources Canada to deal with the threat. However, the recent fires near to Fort McMurray were described as “unprecedented” by the local fire chief this week.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “Many of the fire conditions and the way the fire behaves, no one’s ever seen anything like this. They’re rewriting their formulas on how fires behave, based on this fire.”
Homes have been destroyed, neighbourhoods ruined, thousands of people evacuated. The areas affected in the western Canadian state of Alberta produce oil sands. This energy industry has been greatly affected during this environmental episode, disrupting production. Although, the actual oil sands fields are quite fire proof with vegetation being cleared in these areas, the evacuation of workers takes its toll.
High temperatures, dry weather and strong winds have enhanced the fire situation. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan would expect fires in the southern half of their states in May. However, record high temperatures have been recorded in many locations in western Canada over the past week. Very low relative humidity values of 10-15% have also been recorded through much of this region, both contributing to the unprecedented fire situation.
The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) creates daily fire weather and fire behaviour maps year-round and hot spot maps throughout the forest fire season, generally between May and September. So this is a spectacular start.
Pictures of Fort McMurray have been in our news as wildfire continues to burn in the area and fire conditions remain extreme. There is an evacuation order and the government of Alberta have said “Residents of Fort McMurray should not expect to return home for an extended period of time. Public safety is our number-one priority, and residents won’t be able to return home until it is safe to do so.”
As inspectors and politicians travel to Fort McMurray, much of the infrastructure has survived but fires are still burning in the region and some houses have been raised to the ground.
Like our UK weather warnings, there is structure to the fire risk warnings. The National Preparedness Level is 2 across Canada. Alberta is at an agency preparedness level of 4, neighbouring Saskatchewan is at level 3, while all other provinces and territories are at level 1 or 2. The smoke from the fires is causing poor air quality with health risks and poor visibility too
The situation is now improving, briefly. Each state produces a wildfire summary, with Alberta reporting no new fires out of control, 3 new ones under control and just 2 existing fires still out of control. Natural wildfires bring benefits to the forests and are part of the ecology but it is when they become out of control that problems for communities arise. Warnings exist for lightning strikes and there are large campaigns for campers and other people to not add to the problem. Permits are normally needed to light any fire but currently there are fire bans in force anyway.
Temperatures do dip briefly but then rise later in the week. HIgh pressure is building over northern and central Alberta which includes Fort McMurray. This means no rain, lower humidity but light winds. An areas of low pressure bringin some heavy rain stays over southern Saskatchewan , just into SE Alberta. Extreme caution is still needed in wildland areas as surface fires will start easily. Fire danger is expected to remain very high throughout western Canada.
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