How much of Manitoba's 2025 wildfire season is due to climate change?
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CTV News
43 minutes ago
- CTV News
LaSalle council votes against permanent building at the site of Loop project
The winter loop at LaSalle Landing is seen in this image from November 2024. (Source: Town of LaSalle) The LaSalle Loop project is changing, with town council deciding against a permanent building at the site in favour of a tent to save on costs. The original long-term vision saw the building as a place to warm-up in the winter and stay cool in the summer. However, with the cost reaching as much as $3-million, the town says it's just not in the budget. Last week, council was asked to approve the tent and additional work at the Loop. The 30 by 60-foot tent is being called an interim solution that will last about five to eight years. That could cost as much as $380,000 The tent will have a heater in the winter and will be enclosed. In the summer, it will open up and provide shade to visitors.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
New Brunswickers look to Mother Nature as province gets thirstier
Residents around New Brunswick are looking to the sky for help as the province gets drier and drier. Memramcook resident Alain Clavette joked about dancing naked in his yard with a tambourine to summon the rain as a system of rain clouds missed his area last week. His well has gone dry and he has to drive 30 minutes with a trunk full of containers just to get water for his chickens. "I walk around and [the ground] crunches under my feet," he said. He said his neighbour, who is a farmer, is experiencing the same thing. Clavette has seen him truck totes full of water. Clavette recalled the last time it was extremely dry in his area over 20 years ago. "It was the same thing," he said. "We have [cloud] systems going by and just missing us." He said he is considering installing underground tanks to harvest rainwater. He feels less confident about the future in the face of climate change. "I don't want to sound doom and gloom, but I think this is just a practice, a dry run for what's coming." Fundy Albert Mayor Jim Campbell said his municipality is also concerned about the dry conditions. The tourist season increases the area's population and the need for water grows. Last week, Fundy Albert along with other municipalities across the province like Memramcook, Eastern Charlotte and Tracadie, asked residents to limit water consumption. The Village of Memramcook is even offering free showers twice a week until the end of August at their arena. "We have to be extremely cautious," said Campbell. "The ground is really, really dry." He said people should avoid washing their cars and watering their gardens or flowers. Dishwashers and laundry machines should be fully loaded before turning them on, he advised. "It's pretty hard to enforce," he said. "We have to ask for some common sense and goodwill among men and women." He said water consumption is down a bit "so that shows that people are trying." Campbell said his area needs almost a week of steady rain to replenish the water supply. There are showers and thundershowers in the forecast for parts of New Brunswick overnight, but little precipitation for the rest of the week.
Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Spain deploys 500 more troops to fight wildfires as heatwave drags on
Spain is deploying a further 500 soldiers to battle wildfires that have torn through parched woodland during a prolonged spell of scorching weather, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Sunday. The decision to add to the more than 1,400 troops already on wildfire duty came as authorities struggled to contain forest blazes, especially in the northwestern Galicia region, and awaited the arrival of promised aircraft reinforcements from other European countries. Firefighters are tackling 12 major wildfires in Galicia, all of them near the city of Ourense, the head of the Galician regional government Alfonso Rueda told a press conference with Sánchez. 'Homes are still under threat so we have lockdowns in place and are carrying out evacuations,' Rueda said. Galicia has been battling the spreading flames for more than a week. Temperatures in Spain could reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas on Sunday, the Spanish national weather agency AEMET said. On Saturday, the maximum temperature was 44.7 degrees Celsius (112.46 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Cordoba, it said. 'This Sunday, when extraordinarily high temperatures are expected, the danger of wildfires is extreme in most of the country,' AEMET said on the social platform X. The fires in Spain this year have burned 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres), according to the European Union's European Forest Fire Information System. That is an area roughly as big as metropolitan London. Heat waves expected to drag on as Spain, Portugal, and Greece battle wildfires Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Scientists say that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness in parts of Europe, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires. Spain was expecting the arrival of two Dutch water-dumping planes that were to join aircraft from France and Italy already helping Spanish authorities under a European cooperation agreement. Firefighters from other countries are also expected to arrive in the region in coming days, Spain's Civil Protection Agency chief Virginia Barcones told public broadcaster RTVE. National rail operator Renfe said it suspended Madrid-Galicia high-speed train services scheduled for Sunday due to the fires. Galician authorities advised people to wear face masks and limit their time spent outdoors to avoid inhaling smoke and ash. Wildfires across southern Europe force evacuations and kill firefighters Portugal is set for cooler weather in coming days after a spate of severe woodland fires. A national state of alert due to wildfires was enacted Aug. 2 and was due to end Sunday, a day before two Swedish firefighting planes were to arrive. As in Spain, Portugal's resources have been stretched. On Sunday, more than 4,000 firefighters and more than 1,300 vehicles were deployed, as well as 17 aircraft, the country's Civil Protection Agency said. The scorched area of forest in Portugal so far this year is 17 times higher than in 2024, at around 139,000 hectares, according to preliminary calculations by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, a government body. Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania have also requested help from the EU's firefighting force in recent days to deal with forest fires. The force has already been activated as many times this year as in all of last year's summer fire season. U.S. Republicans demand that Canada deal with wildfires – but won't acknowledge climate change In Turkey, where recent wildfires have killed 19 people, parts of the historic region that includes memorials to World War I's Gallipoli campaign were evacuated Sunday as blazes threatened homes in the country's northwest. Six villages were evacuated as a precautionary measure, the governor of Canakkale province, Omer Toraman, said. Some 1,300 firefighting personnel backed by 30 aircraft were battling the blaze, according to the General Directorate of Forestry. A wildfire on the peninsula to the north of the Dardanelles Strait led to the closure of visitor facilities at Gallipoli, the site's management said. The area is dotted with cemeteries, memorials and other remnants of battles waged between Ottoman and Allied troops in 1915. Turkey has been struck by hundreds of fires since late June, fueled by record-breaking temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.
