Hot Alberta weather adds fuel to province’s wildfire situation

A prolonged heatwave in Alberta isn’t helping the province’s wildfire situation.

“The heat wave, overnight lighting, and a shift in wind direction could lead to more new wildfire starts, extreme fire behaviour, or changes in existing wildfires already burning on the landscape,” explained Christie Tucker with Alberta Wildfire.

In northern Alberta, new lightning-sparked fires are posing new challenges and forcing dozens more people to flee their homes.

Fire crews in Jasper National Park say two area wildfires are now under control, and they’re currently battling a third at Utopia Mountain.

Parks Canada adds while there’s no immediate threat to the town, wildfire smoke is causing poor air quality and reduced visibility.

As of Monday morning, there are more than 160 active wildfires in the province, forcing about 7,500 people to evacuate.

RCMP say residents living in John D’Or Prairie and Fox Lake are now being ordered to leave, adding to an existing order for neighbouring Garden River.

Little Red River Cree Nation Chief Conroy Sewepagaham says the nearby wildfire has forced the closure of the highway connecting the communities.

“It has grown quite a bit due to the hot weather conditions we’ve been having, this heat wave doesn’t help,” he said.

“This is the first time in Little Red River Cree Nation history that we’ve had to evacuate all three communities from fire threat.”

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WATCH: 160 Alberta wildfires with challenging winds ahead

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In the meantime, west of Fort McMurray, dozens from the community of Chipewyan Lake were ordered to leave Thursday after a separate blaze threatened the only road out; to the south, an evacuation alert remains in place in Janvier.

Oilsands producer MEG Energy says production remains stable at its Christina Lake facility in spite of wildfires in the region, adding only essential staff remain at the site.

Help is on the way, as firefighters from Australia have been deployed to the province. Alberta will also get help from some rain in the forecast.

“We are very much looking forward to getting some precipitation, particularly up north where we need it on those large-scale fires, the ones near communities,” Tucker said.

Wildfire smoke comes with silver lining

There’s so much smoke that wildfires are being shaded from the sun and daytime temperature highs in some areas are cooler than forecast, leading to reduced fire activity.

Wildfire officials say they are expecting “increased and significant fire behaviour” when the smoke clears as hot and dry weather continues.

A fire ban remains in place for Alberta’s entire Forest Protection Area.

Increasing fires means more wildfire smoke, resulting in poor air quality. This, in combination with prolonged high temperatures can present health risks for vulnerable individuals includes babies and seniors.

Environment Canada says cooler temperatures are expected to start moving into northwestern parts of the province starting tonight, though hot conditions may persist through much of the week farther south.

–With files from Sean Amato in Edmonton and The Canadian Press