Firefighters battling blazes in the region haven't been getting much help from Mother Nature. It doesn't appear she will be helping anytime soon either, as precipitation levels in northeastern Alberta are lower than average so far this year, and there little to no rain in the forecast for the region. Steady winds and unseasonably dry weather have hindered efforts control several wildfires, including one 17,000 hectare out-of-control fire at the Primrose Air Weapons Range, near Cold Lake.
Firefighters battling blazes in the region haven’ t been getting much help from Mother Nature. It doesn’ t appear she will be helping anytime soon either, as precipitation levels in northeastern Alberta are lower than average so far this year, and there little to no rain in the forecast for the region. Steady winds and unseasonably dry weather have hindered efforts control several wildfires, including one 17,000 hectare out-of-control fire at the Primrose Air Weapons Range, near Cold Lake.
According to environment Canada’ s website, precipitation levels in the Lac La Biche area reached just 31.3 and 27.7 millimetres, in April and May respectively, compared to their 2014 levels of 52.3 and 46.6 mm. Dan Kulak, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, attributes the low amounts of precipitation to what’ s called a “ridge pattern”.
“Basically, it’ s an upper level ridge. The storms are mostly moving to the north - it’ s keeping things to the west and to the north, so we’ re in this dry weather pattern... most of the month has been rather dry,” he said.
Even though rainfall in the region has been sparse so far this year, the dry weather doesn’ t constitute what experts consider drought conditions. Trevor Hawden, an agri-climate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, said even though rainfall levels are below normal, it isn’ t time to panic.
“We’ re certainly not looking at a drought condition yet, it’ s too early for that,” he said, “We’ re classifying this as an abnormally dry period.”
Despite the region not being in a drought condition, Hawden said that may change if the current weather pattern persists. However, one or two good rainfalls may be enough to buck the trend.
“We’ re certainly going down that path... May is usually a fairly wet month in the prairies, and that’ s why we’ re seeing a lot of concern at this time,” he said. “One of the reasons we’ re not talking about drought situations right now is because it can change so quick. One good rainfall and all of a sudden you’ re back into a really good situation.”
Though the lack of natural moisture hasn’ t helped firefighters in the region, it has had at least one positive side effect: many farmers have been able to get ahead of schedule so far this growing season.
“Because of the dry weather, seeding progress across the prarie region is has been well above normal,” said the agricultural specialist, but he acknowledged that this news may be of little comfort to some. “It’ s certainly dry up in that region, and there’ s a great concern for forest fires... because the plants haven’ t really started greening up yet. Until we get that vegetation growth, we’ re stuck in that really dry, vulnerable period... forest fires certainly are a bigger issue.”
Both the Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada websites have useful tools for tracking precipitation and moisture in the area. Anyone interested in seeing how moisture levels stack up to the average in the area can google Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada agro-climate maps. The map currently shows that moisture in the area is at about 60-85 per cent of normal. Environment Canada’ s site provides up-to-date forecasts as well as historical weather data for the area.
