(Photo supplied: A Phoenix Heli-Flight chopper water bombing over a Thickwood bush fire on May 14, 2015. Phoenix Heli-Flight/TWITTER).
Experts say the El Nino phenomenon made for an early start to the wildfire season across Western Canada. They predict it’s going to keep increasing wildfire activity in the northwest.
By May 28, 2014, only four wildfires had burned in the Fort McMurray Management Area. Four were caused by lightning, one was a human caused fire. So far this year, crews battled 28 fires in the area. Of those, 22 were human caused and six were sparked by lightning.
“So we are similar right now to the year that we had the Mariana Lake fire,” says Fort McMurray Wildfire Information Officer Robyn Haugen. “Our conditions are the same, if not worse than they were in that year […] we’ve had a couple little shots of rain here, but they’ve been isolated showers, and it’s not enough to account for the lack of snow and moisture we’ve had up until now.”
El Nino cycles every two to seven years, but it’s not about creating the warmer than normal temperatures seen in the Wood Buffalo region. Instead, experts with the Canadian Forest Service say it often reduces precipitation, which also triggered an early snow melt. Fire Research Scientist, Kerry Anderson, told the Canadian Press there’s about two dozen global models that say El Nino is kicking in.
Currently, there’s one fire under control at 26 hectares, on the northwest corner of Birch Mountain Provincial Park. The only other fire is being held at 37.2 hectares. It’s about 60 kilometres west of Fort McMurray.
“Our firefighters have been working very hard to get a handle on what’s going on in our area. They’ve done just incredible work and we’re so grateful for them. We are down to now two wildfires in our area,” says Haugen.
Experts are watching to see if the situation calms down later in the season, which would be in line with early predictions.
