Another spring in the smoke is the Winnipeg Free Press

In Alberta, parts of Fort McMurray are being evacuated again. More than 4,000 residents of Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nation in BC were ordered to evacuate this week. Thick smoke has already covered large areas of the West from Edmonton to Winnipeg.

As dry forests burn in Western Canada, it's all too painful and familiar.

In addition to the flames, smoke blanketed Edmonton and other communities, including Winnipeg, prompting air quality warnings.

According to Environment Canada, smoke from wildfires in Western Canada peaked around the same time last year's devastating fire season. Wildfire smoke has blanketed major cities across the continent in the past year, including New York, Toronto and Chicago.

As the effects of climate change deepen around the world, wildfires are increasing in size and intensity.

Mike Flannigan, BC Innovative Research Chair in Forecasting Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, says climate change is driving the increase in wildfires in Western Canada.

“Some people don't like it, but that's the role of climate change,” he says. “I think BC is a really clear example. Between 2017 and 2023, we burned more land than in the previous 58 years. Yes, we're going to see more fire and smoke in the future.”

Warmer temperatures mean a longer fire season and increase the likelihood of lightning — a major fire driver — and draw more moisture from the atmosphere, Flannigan said.

Last year, records were broken for how much land burned in Canada, and it's impossible to predict what will happen this year, but hopefully it won't be as bad. Flannigan said the weather forecast for the fire is positive.

He said the most significant this year are winter fires in both Alberta and B.C. In years past, firefighters would have fought them in the fall, but those crews were stretched thin late in the season and hotspots were too widespread.

“We got off to a fast start,” he says.

“It's more active than average, but nowhere near 2023.”

Here's a summary of what's happening in Western Canada, where most of the fires are burning.

British Columbia

Fires and drought conditions across much of the province, particularly in the northeast, set the stage for BC's 2024 wildfire season. Little rain and snow fell during the winter, and many BC watersheds never had a chance to fill. This led to an early and aggressive start to the season, with many new fires starting in April and May.

The Parker Lake fire near Fort Nelson displaced more than 4,000 community members over the Mother's Day weekend. As of May 15, the wildfire, which covers an area of ​​more than 8,000 hectares, continues to grow and is burning several kilometers from the city.

Remnants of the 2023 wildfires that burned across the Earth throughout the winter, fires that ignite when exposed to warm, dry winds will also begin to flare up. One, called Patri Creek, is located north of Fort Nelson, and BC Wildfire Service crews are closely monitoring its growth.

“In the past, winter conditions have allowed many fires to be put out,” BC Emergency Management Minister Bovinn Ma told reporters at a May 13 press conference. “What we've seen in this case is that because of the increased temperatures and persistent drought … many of these dormant fires from last year have not been extinguished as they normally would.”

According to the BC Wildfire Service, 126 wildfires are burning as of May 16, and conditions in the Northeast, which are experiencing high activity early in the season, are “increasing the fire's aggressive behavior and rate of spread, making suppression efforts difficult.” »

Sherry Williams, an air quality meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the weekend of May 10 was the first time this year that air quality in B.C. has worsened for the agency's special announcement. This is slightly behind the first post published on May 5 last year.

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Alberta

As in BC, drought conditions in Alberta raise fears of blazes and a poor wildfire season, with 23 fires still burning as of 2023 after a dry winter.

As of May 15, there were 45 wildfires in the province, with two fires burning out of control near Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie, according to the Alberta government. All but one of those 45 fires are burning north of Edmonton.

Statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center show that more than 1.4 million hectares of land have burned this year, nearly triple the number at this time last year. But Flannigan says those numbers are misleading.

He said Alberta is calculating last year's fires by area burned, and the actual figure may be closer to 30,000 to 40,000 hectares this year, compared to about 530,000 hectares this time last year.

Air quality advisories were issued in Edmonton the weekend of May 10, which were comparable to this time last year, according to Williams. Air quality began to deteriorate in the north in early May last year and moved south towards the center of the province, he said.

Fort McMurray, the site of a devastating wildfire that tore through the city in 2016 and destroyed nearly 2,400 homes, is again on alert as residents of southern communities are evacuated and those from northern areas report traffic jams for those seeking to escape before evacuation orders are issued. is released.

Some villagers near Grande Prairie were ordered to evacuate, but this was downgraded to an evacuation warning on May 15 and residents were allowed to return home.

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Saskatchewan

The situation in Saskatchewan, where nine fires are currently burning, is less severe, according to the province. Two of those fires were out of control on May 15, and residents of Creighton, near the Manitoba border, were on alert for a fire near Flin Flon.

Saskatchewan has seen more fires this year than last year, but 30 per cent fewer fires to date, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

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Manitoba

The situation is almost identical in Manitoba, where nine fires are currently burning, two of which are out of control, according to the province. Both of those fires were near the Saskatchewan border, one near Clearwater Lake and the other east of Flin Flon and Grass River Provincial Park, forcing the evacuation of the community of Cranberry Portage.

Evacuees from that community hoped to return home sooner as the fire moved away from the city.

Statistics from the Canadian Interagency Wildfire Center show that this year's fires are more than double last year's total, and as of May 14, 35,000 hectares had burned, up from just over 2,000 hectares last year.

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Northwest Territories

In 2023, the Northwest Territories caught fire, thousands of people were forced to flee, and the capital was threatened by flames. In June of last year, more than two-thirds of the population of the territory was evacuated.

The fires started early again this year, with seven currently burning, according to the territorial government. According to the Canadian Interagency Center for Forest Fire, there have been 13 wildfires this year alone, compared to four in 2023, but the area burned has shrunk significantly.

The community of Fort Liard, near the BC border, was notified on May 10 to prepare for the possibility of evacuation. The evacuation notice remains in effect on May 15.

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Globally, the deepening effects of climate change are being felt on the forest fire front.

As Juliet Biao Kudenukpo wrote at the United Nations Forum on Forests last year, “climate change will increase the risk of wildfires through increased drought, higher temperatures, lower relative humidity, dry lightning and strong winds.”

The situation in the Northeast is consistent with research linking climate change-related events to larger, faster-moving and more destructive fires across the landscape, such as the 2021 heat dome to the west. At higher latitudes, overall warming is more pronounced, compounding the odds against a milder fire season. As the temperature rises and there is less rain and snow, the forests become drier year after year. In such a situation, a spark is all that is needed.

– Narwhal