Alberta preparing for another early wildfire season after record 2023 and mild winter

After a record year followed by what has been an unseasonably mild winter, Alberta Wildfire is preparing for what could be another year of fires sparking earlier than usual.

After a record year for wildfires in the province, followed by what has been an unseasonably mild and dry winter thus far, Alberta Wildfire is already preparing for what could be another year of fires beginning earlier than usual.

“We’re coming into this wildfire season with less snow on the ground, less precipitation and higher temperatures than we typically see for this time of year,” said Alberta Wildfire community relations coordinator Melissa Story.

While more snow this winter will be helpful, Story said the telltale sign for the 2024 wildfire season will be the amount of rain that falls in the spring — the most volatile time for a wildfire.

“Once we have that dry, dead vegetation on the landscape, a fire can start very easily and spread quickly. So the rain really helps for getting grass growing and getting the trees growing so that we can fight those wildfires.”

The hope for rain comes after the province had the worst fire season on record, in terms of area burnt.

“We had a hot, dry spring in the start of 2023, which drove up the wildfire danger and led to most of the major wildfires that we had in the spring of last year,” she said, adding 60 fires from 2023 are still burning and have carried over into this year.

Wildfires can burn into the ground, especially in boggy areas full of peat moss, smouldering for months or years after it first sparked.

However, having five dozen fires carry over is not normal. Story said typically, only a handful of big blazes do that.