Canadian Wildfire Season Quickly Approaching Summer Peak

The Canadian Wildfire season is approaching its peak time, The Canadian Press reported (7-13-24).

Overall, this wildfire season is far less severe than the record-setting year in 2023, but the risk for new fires is still high, particularly for BC, Yukon, and Northwest Territories. The ongoing drought in Northwest Territories has intensified, and Environment Canada said things are drier than usual in the Yukon.

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl have brought flash floods and destruction to parts of the Maritimes, but federal officials say the storm has also reduced the risk of wildfires in parts of Eastern Canada, at least for now.

Deryck Trehearn, director-general of Public Safety Canada’s government operations center, said, “We are now into the heart of our fire season, and we are tracking carefully a number of fires across the country and the expansion of general wildfire activity.”

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) said there were 563 fires actively burning on Friday, July 12th. Federal officials said there was a response to try to douse the flames for about half the active fires. About 1.3 million hectares have burned, which is close to the 10-year average for this time of year. By contrast, 1.3 million hectares had burned in BC alone by mid-July last year. Nationally, nearly 10 million hectares had burned.

There are currently about 150 active wildfires across BC, a figure that’s holding steady from Thursday following an eruption of wildfire activity this week.