Wildfire activity is picking up in Alberta but officials predict an average season

Emily Williams · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 11, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Fire enactment has been picking up successful caller days, but officials with Alberta Wildfire accidental the state is in amended signifier this season, compared to the last.

Alberta Wildfire says caller exertion for tackling upwind conditions, and a snowy outpouring are affirmative aboriginal indicators pointing to a comparatively tame occurrence season.

"We are inactive looking bully for a overmuch much mean play than we've seen successful the past mates of years," Christie Tucker, accusation portion pb for Alberta Wildfire said successful a quality league Thursday.

This clip past year, determination were already astir 50 wildfires burning crossed the province. As of April 10 of this year, there are nine, 8 of which stay nether control. A occurrence successful the High Level Forest Area is being held.

One of those is simply a communal assistance fire, meaning it falls extracurricular the wood extortion country and is fought by different agency, with the assistance of Alberta Wildfire.

Todd Loewen, curate of forestry and parks, said successful summation to weather, the lower volume is besides owed to an effectual firefighting effort of holdover fires from past season.

"Going into this season, I would say, 'cautiously optimistic' — but we cognize we bash person challenges coming forward," Loewen said.

He added determination are parts of Alberta that bash not person arsenic overmuch snowfall arsenic they hoped for — peculiarly successful the eastbound slopes and immoderate parts of the acold north. 

"We cognize we're going to person fires, it's just a substance of how galore and however intense," Loewen said.

Maps from Natural Resources Canada bespeak areas of high, precise precocious and utmost occurrence information successful confederate and cardinal Alberta — risks that person lone emerged successful the past week.

New tech

One different acquisition learned from past season, Loewen said, is the worth of warring fires astatine night. The authorities is adding a caller nighttime chopper to its fleet.

The state has 150 upwind stations, with 14 distant stations that are portable. New stations and upgrades to existing stations volition supply greater accuracy and flexibility successful tracking occurrence activity.

It's portion of a $900,000 concern implicit 3 years from the province. Loewen said tracking conditions is 1 of the champion tools for warring fires going forward.

"We tin usage this accusation to work things similar the humidity successful the air, the upwind and the temperature, arsenic good arsenic however overmuch rainfall we've received," Tucker said.  

The mobile distant machines springiness firefighters the quality to really enactment them connected an progressive wildfire tract and marque decisions astir however resources are deployed.

"We've seen what benignant of effect beardown winds tin person connected a wildfire, astir precocious evidently successful California, successful Jasper," Tucker said.

"It tin origin unthinkable wildfire behaviour and that's thing we privation to cognize astir arsenic soon arsenic imaginable truthful we tin hole and set our tactics accordingly."