The rain helped, but Alberta’s weather forecast might add to the wildfire danger

We are certainly in better shape than we were last year, thanks in part to those conditions that we have seen. The rain that’s come in the cooler temperatures have certainly added some time to the spring shoulder season and given us a bit of a reprieve as far as wildfire activity. But as I said, we’re coming to the point where we could see a shift in those conditions and we need to just be ready for what potentially could happen. We monitor the conditions very carefully. We know what the weather is expected to come certainly in the short term and. And we are hopeful that more of that precipitation will come back. But we know in the short term this weekend we are expecting dry conditions, we’re expecting warm conditions. We are looking at winds in a couple of areas that could provide additional danger. And so we are increasing our caution for this weekend, particularly in those areas that didn’t get as much rain in Grand Prairie region. The north is still in extreme drought. There’s parts of central Alberta between Edmonton and Calgary and the Peace River District where soil moisture is less than 40% of normal conditions and precipitation is below normal from red deer north and extremely below normal in the Peace River area. And that area of central Alberta, Edmonton and South maybe another 100mm further north in the Peace River country in excess of 150 millimeters to to get back into normal conditions. So. You’d really need a need some long widespread downpours, very steady so it doesn’t run off. Unfortunately the we have a beautiful forecast for temperatures going up into the 20s. So it’s a return to those dry warmer than normal conditions that we had last year and the monthly forecast from Environment Canada very strongly suggests much warmer than normal conditions for the next month.