Experts say Sask. wildfires could remain ablaze until snowfall

Halyna Mihalik · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 14, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

Wildfires proceed to rage successful bluish Saskatchewan as the state faces its worst occurrence play successful much than a decade.

Increasingly warmer-than-average outpouring temperatures, prolonged periods without rain and beardown gusting winds person lone exacerbated the situation.

One happening is clear: nary substance however galore firefighters are sent to power the increasing fires, it's up to parent quality to enactment retired the flames.

Dry leaves, twigs and conifer needles connected wood floors enactment arsenic a basal for wildfires to ignite, and bluish Saskatchewan has experienced a deficiency of moisture this year.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed La Ronge had its 2nd driest outpouring successful 60 years.

Fire specialists that CBC spoke to said rainfall is the lone semipermanent solution.

How overmuch rainfall is needed?

A low-pressure upwind strategy rolled into the province's northbound past week, yet bringing immoderate moisture to the area. Some parts got up to 40 mm of rain.

But occurrence specialists pass it's obscurity adjacent enough.

"You're astir astatine 1,000,000 hectares, which is astir 40 times the size of Saskatoon," Mike Flannigan, a prof of wildland occurrence astatine Thompson Rivers University, told CBC.

"It's a immense country that's connected occurrence and it's producing tons of smoke. Every clip you get a mates adust days and the upwind picks up, you're going to spot these fires turn unless we get 2 weeks of rain, oregon 100-plus millimetres."

If the state did get 100 mm of rain, Flannigan said galore of the fires would beryllium enactment out, but hotspots would inactive beryllium burning successful deeper integrated worldly and connected logs successful the forest.

June is typically Saskatchewan's mini "monsoon" season, wherever precocious lows travel done and driblet tons of rainfall astatine once. Flannigan said astatine slightest 3 of those rainfalls would beryllium needed during the period to supply immoderate tangible relief.

Thunderstorms, upwind tin pb to spread

Although moisture is needed successful the province, the hazard of lightning that comes with showers could marque things worse.

Lightning strikes tin dispersed existing fires oregon make caller ones.

"It was a lukewarm adust outpouring successful overmuch of the Prairie provinces and we got immoderate human-caused ignitions. Now we're getting lightning-caused ignitions, it's been windy and the fires are growing," Flannigan said.

"The warmer we get, the much lightning we expect."

Certain wildfires tin adjacent nutrient a thunderstorm, called a pyrocumulonimbus. Clouds are formed erstwhile aerial is drawn into a fume plume, becoming much humid, unstable and favourable for the instauration of thunderstorms.

"We've seen a fig of them successful Manitoba and Saskatchewan this occurrence season, much than astir years," Flannigan said. "That's a motion that fires are getting much aggravated and generating these thunderstorms, which tin besides nutrient hail, rainfall [and] lightning."

Thunderstorms besides bring strong, gusting winds, different origin that can make matters worse.

Strong winds tin propulsion fires faster than they'd usually grow, which makes them much hard to suppress, and create a dryer atmosphere.

"Strong winds tin assistance adust retired things similar grasses oregon your smaller twigs much quickly," Liam Bouchard, a occurrence upwind specializer with the Canadian Forest Service, told CBC.

The lone affirmative to upwind gusts is they tin sometimes propulsion fume retired of communities.

Experts accidental fires whitethorn pain until snowfall

Experts pass the remainder of the summertime whitethorn beryllium blistery and dry, conditions favourable for the continuation of wildfires.

"[If] these vigor waves travel back, determination is imaginable for precise lukewarm temperatures arsenic we are approaching the mediate of summer," Bouchard said.

High temperatures and a deficiency of rainfall could mean immoderate fires whitethorn not beryllium afloat extinguished each season.

"I'm acrophobic that immoderate of these fires volition pain done the summertime into fall," Flannigan said. "It'll beryllium wintertime that puts retired astir of these fires. And successful fact, sometimes fires tin pain close done the winter."

The improvement is known arsenic an overwintering fire, successful which fires proceed burning underground passim the winter. Sometimes erstwhile fires are burning successful deeper integrated material, they tin spell underground and smolder precise slowly. Even arsenic snowfall falls connected the wood floor, integrated worldly continues smoldering underneath the surface. 

"Spring 2026 comes, the snowfall melts, it warms up and the occurrence smolders backmost to the aboveground and starts spreading," Flannigan said. "So that's a concern."

If overwintering fires hap this year, the adjacent wildfire play could beryllium adjacent worse. 

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) confirmed to CBC that overwintering fires occurred in some 2017 and 2024.

"These fires are remediated precise aboriginal successful the spring, truthful they don't go a occupation later," the SPSA said.

The bureau said it's excessively aboriginal yet to accidental if overwintering fires volition hap this twelvemonth and that it depends connected the magnitude of rainfall received arsenic the summertime goes on.

Hot summertime ahead

With ECCC predicting supra mean temperatures, the accidental of fires continuing remains a beardown possibility.

"Much of Canada, peculiarly successful the Prairies, experienced adust conditions," ECCC told CBC. "These conditions, successful operation with the precocious likelihood of a warmer-than-normal summer, could summation the hazard of wildfires successful the coming months."

Projection maps from ECCC amusement that parts of northeastern Saskatchewan person a 90 to 100 per cent accidental of seeing above-normal temperatures this summer. It's not wide by however galore degrees temperatures volition beryllium supra average.

"The technological statement close present is that warming temperatures and clime alteration are truly priming the atmosphere, priming the wood for much fires successful the future," Bouchard said.

Up-to-date info connected progressive fires, fume and related topics is disposable astatine these sources:

• Interactive Sask. progressive occurrence map
• Fire information map.
• Fire bans.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada upwind alerts.
• Sask. Highway Hotline.
• Smoke forecast.
• Air quality.
• Tracking wildfires crossed Canada.