Alberta reports more than 60 active wildfires with hot temperatures expected to persist
As of Tuesday, 16 wildfires deemed out of control were all north of Edmonton
The August long weekend was dry enough in some regions to spark 40 new wildfires across the province but most of the new starts have been extinguished, Alberta Wildfire said.
As of Wednesday morning, 68 active wildfires were burning in the province with 16 deemed out of control, the government agency said.
The out-of-control fires are in northern Alberta where several regions, including the High Level forest area and the Peace River forest area, where Alberta Wildfire is reporting high wildfire danger.
Although several fires are burning in the Lac La Biche forest area, the current danger level is considered low to moderate, as recent rainfall reduced the likelihood of new wildfires starting.
Lac La Biche has the most fires of any region in Alberta this year, at 192 with 21 active ones and four classified as out of control.
People who live in the Chipewyan Lake area in the Municipal District of Opportunity No. 17 still can't go home, as an evacuation order, which was issued in late May, remains in effect.
Alberta has had 946 wildfires in forest protection areas since the beginning of the year, burning more than 672,000 hectares.
Helping the efforts in Alberta are firefighters and support staff from British Columbia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Australia and Chile.
A new group of Australian firefighters arrived in Edmonton International Airport Tuesday morning — the fifth team from that country to arrive in Alberta this year.
They include 16 people with specialties in helicopter skills, task force commanders and supervisors, said Andrew Dillon agency representative for New South Wales and South Australia.
"The international firefighting team is quite small," Dillon told CBC News Tuesday.
"There's really not a lot of people in those specialist roles so it's really important that Australia can help overseas in North America and Canada, Alberta and all the provinces."
Nearly 300 Australian firefighters have been to Alberta so far this year.
Dillon says team members will head to Lac La Biche, Slave Lake and Peace River.
Hot temperatures on the way
Temperatures are projected to remain high in Alberta throughout August, according to Christy Climenhaga with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
"There is a better chance for more of those above normal days than below normal days for temperatures," Climenhaga said in an interview Tuesday.
Predicting how much precipitation will come down is trickier because of its volatile nature, Climenhaga said.
"You can get a big thunderstorm that drops a month's worth of rain in a day or so," Climenhaga said.
"So it's still a bit of a question mark, I would say in terms of precipitation. Not really seeing enough of a trend to really say if it will be a wet August or if it will be a dry one."
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