Province ranks wildfire risk across Alberta
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While hot, dry conditions mean northern Alberta is tinder for the wildfire taking, some pockets around Alberta ranked particularly high Friday on the scale established as the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, a widely used tool that provides a numerical rating of the potential fire intensity in forested areas.
The scale gives firefighters a better picture of how likely a forest fire is to start, spread, and how intense it could be.
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Calgary Herald
10-05-2025
- Calgary Herald
What's the current wildfire risk in various parts of Alberta?
While hot, dry conditions mean northern Alberta is tinder for the wildfire taking, some pockets around Alberta ranked particularly high Friday on the scale established as the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, a widely used tool that provides a numerical rating of the potential fire intensity in forested areas. Article content Article content The scale gives firefighters a better picture of how likely a forest fire is to start, spread, and how intense it could be. Article content Article content SLAVE LAKE — EXTREME DANGER Article content Article content The wildfire danger was once again extreme in the Slave Lake Forest Area due to hot, dry, and windy conditions. Article content Since Jan. 1 there have been 52 wildfires reported in the Slave Lake Forest Area resulting in a total burned area of 36.33 hectares. Article content 'Smoke may still be visible in the Buffalo Bay area, southwest of Grouard, due to a wildfire. Big Lakes Fire Services is monitoring the situation,' the notice reads. Article content The wildfire that ripped through Slave Lake in May 2011 caused more than $700 million in damages, making it the second-costliest insured disaster in Canadian history to that point, surpassed only by the 1998 ice storm that hit Quebec and Ontario, which caused $1.8 billion in damages, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said at the time. Article content LAC LA BICHE — EXTREME DANGER Article content There were currently six active wildfires burning in the Lac La Biche forest area, where wildfire danger is classed as 'extreme.' Article content Since Jan. 1 there have been 69 wildfires in the Lac La Biche Forest Area burning a total of 530 hectares. Article content Article content LWF060 was being held and crews are working towards extinguishment near the junction of Highway 55 and 866, southeast of Grandeur Lake. Article content This wildfire was estimated at 47.9 hectares in size. Article content The remainder of the active wildfires were considered under control Friday, and there were no threats to communities or structures at the time. Article content Visit the wildfire status dashboard for additional information. Article content A mutual-aid wildfire refers to a wildfire that occurs outside of the Forest Protection Area, typically within a municipal district or county. When such a wildfire grows beyond the capacity of local municipal firefighting resources, Alberta Wildfire may be called upon to provide assistance. In these cases, Alberta Wildfire supports the lead agency — the local municipality or county — in managing and containing the fire.
Edmonton Journal
09-05-2025
- Edmonton Journal
Province ranks wildfire risk across Alberta
Article content While hot, dry conditions mean northern Alberta is tinder for the wildfire taking, some pockets around Alberta ranked particularly high Friday on the scale established as the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, a widely used tool that provides a numerical rating of the potential fire intensity in forested areas. The scale gives firefighters a better picture of how likely a forest fire is to start, spread, and how intense it could be.
CBC
04-10-2024
- CBC
4 charts show the true scale of Canada's quietly devastating wildfire season
Social Sharing After last year's off-the-charts, record-breaking wildfire season in 2023, this year may have felt like a reprieve — at least in some parts of the country. But this past summer was still far above normal by several measures — and experts say what transpired holds clues for what's to come as the climate changes, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. Here's a breakdown. Large area burned Given the scale of last year's fires, this year's wildfire season wasn't quite as devastating. Yet it was worse than many people realize, said Yan Boulanger, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada. By the numbers, the 2024 wildfire season is on track to be the second-worst wildfire season in terms of area burned since 1995, with more than 5.3 million hectares burned so far. That trails far behind last year, when more than 15 million hectares burned. "If we are always comparing it to last year as a reference, every other year will not be as bad. But I think we have to say that it was a bad year," Boulanger said in an interview. The 2024 season is consistent with what wildfire scientists have observed over the past half-century — an increase, decade over decade, in the area burned, he said. Western Canada most affected In contrast with 2023, where much of the country had major wildfires, this year the bulk of them broke out in Western Canada. The most costly was in Jasper, Alta., which resulted in $880 million in insured damages. About 70 per cent of the total area burned was in British Columbia, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan, officials said in a briefing last week. Dry and hot, again Hot, dry weather is the driver of wildfires — and last year the conditions were primed for them to spread. The map that follows shows what's known as the Fire Weather Index (FWI), which measures the dryness of the forest (known as fuel), along with the temperature, humidity, level of precipitation and wind speed. In 2023, this map was a dark red across nearly the whole country. While this year's isn't quite so dramatic, it was hotter and drier than usual, particularly in Western Canada. "We're finding that the depth of the drought and the areas that are under high to extreme fire danger are very large," said Lori Daniels, a wildfire expert and University of British Columbia forestry professor. Number of fires not increasing The number of ignitions, also known as fire starts, was not especially high, as was the case a year earlier. Overall, human-caused fire starts are in decline because of better awareness and stronger restrictions during peak periods of fire risk, said Daniels. "The message about prevention, about making sure that we're not accidentally starting fires through recreational activities or through industrial activities, that message is getting out," Daniels said. At the same time, she said researchers are concerned about how extreme weather could result in more "lightning outbreaks" — whereby hundreds or even thousands of lightning strikes hit in quick succession. "When you have 100 ignitions all at once, some of those under hot, dry, windy conditions are going to become fast-moving, fire-spreading fires," she said. Big source of emissions The greenhouse gas emissions produced by Canada's wildfires last year were on a whole other level — one recent study found they produced more carbon than the burning of fossil fuels in all but three countries. This year, Daniels said that number will be considerably lower, just as the area burned was smaller. More generally, experts have raised concern that an increasing number of larger, more intense wildfires will contribute to further climate warming. "They're burning deep into the soils and burning an accumulation of organic material that took literally centuries to build," said Daniels. "We're emitting millions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which is again, that positive feedback with a negative consequence." WATCH | Last year's wildfires emitted enough carbon to rival entire countries: 2023 wildfires in Canada emitted enough carbon to rival entire countries 1 month ago Duration 1:08 If the carbon output from Canadian wildfires in 2023 were compared to the national outputs of countries around the world, it would rank fourth behind the U.S., China and India, says NASA atmospheric scientist Brendan Byrne. When a season doesn't end Climate change has contributed to earlier starts and later ends to the wildfire season, Boulanger and Daniels said. Researchers project this trend will continue as the climate warms. Dry conditions in northeastern B.C. could lead fires there to continue to burn through the winter once again, Daniel said. Last winter, more than 100 holdover fires smouldered underground through the winter months. "We have some fires that ignited in 2022 and 2023 that are still burning on Oct. 1, 2024 and will still be burning in 2025," she said.
