National Wildland Fire Situation Report

National Wildland Fire Situation Report

Archived reports

Current as of: November 20, 2024

• Data courtesy of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).
• Check the Air Quality Health Index for air quality in your area.

Priority fires

Weekly national situation reports will resume Spring 2025. Please note that data required for table above is unavailable at this time of year.

Interagency mobilization

2024 Seasonal Summary

Interagency mobilization: Requests for wildland fire resource sharing both nationally and internationally are managed through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), a not-for-profit corporation owned by the federal, provincial, and territorial wildland fire management agencies.

National Preparedness Level 1 indicates minimal wildland fire activity and the demand for firefighters and equipment from other jurisdictions is light. On the other end of the spectrum Level 5 is the highest preparedness level and indicates significant activity across one or more jurisdictions with firefighters and equipment in every jurisdiction across Canada in use, and international help has been requested.

Fire activity in the spring started early in Canada, with the National Preparedness Level (NPL) briefly going to Level 3 by May 15th before dropping back down to level 2 by May 21st. The CIFFC remained at Preparedness Level 2 or 1 throughout the remainder of May, June, and into July. In July it increased to Level 3 before quickly rising to Level 4 and eventually Level 5 by July 15th. It remained at Level 5 for the remainder of July, through to August 22nd when it reduced to Level 4 once there was a reduction in outstanding resources requests. In Canada CIFFC continued to reduce its posture to Level 3 where it remained to mid September, and eventually dropping to Level 1 by the end of the month indicating there was little to no mobilizations occurring through CIFFC.

Over the fire season, response resources were mobilized across the country from all CIFFC member agencies. There were 6 requests for federal assistance (including extensions of existing resources) by provinces and territories for fire fighters and airlift support.

The Government of Canada in collaboration with the CIFFC coordinated international personnel from Australia, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and South Africa. CIFFC coordinated multiple types of resources from the United States through the U.S. National Interagency Fire Centre (NIFC). These resources included personnel and equipment (such as pumps and hose). In addition, Alberta coordinated international personnel from Mexico through a separate resource sharing arrangement. Provinces and territories also have mutual aid assistance agreements with border states also known as the North American Fire Compacts. Additional U.S. resources were mobilized (personnel and aircraft) through these agreements.

In Late July and August, the United States was also at their highest level of National Preparedness as fires persisted across the west, northwest, and Alaska. In October, CIFFC was able to respond to a request from NIFC and coordinated the sharing of Canadian wildland firefighters and overhead personnel to the United States.

Weekly Synopsis

Seasonal Summary: Alberta declared an early start to the official fire season in February, ten days earlier than usual (March 1st). This was prompted by warm and dry weather.

The first wildfire of the season in Quebec started mid-March, the fourth earliest since 1973 according to the National Forestry Database. If was followed by the first wildfire in British Columbia a few days later.

The first evacuation due to wildfire (grassfire) was in early-April near Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta. Residents were able to return later the same day. Later in the month there were a series of evacuations due to wildfire across in across northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Fire crews responded to and contained a fire northwest of Jasper National Park, no evacuation was prompted at this time.

In early May, Saskatchewan and Manitoba had their first evacuations due to wildfire. Soon after multiple neighborhoods in Fort MacMurray, AB were evacuated as wildfire approached parts of the area previously burned in 2016. Surrounding communities and parts of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo remained on evacuation alert for large parts of the summer. In late May activity in Quebec and Labrador started to pick up.

In June fire activity started to stabilize out west. In mid-June activity picked up in the east, the community of Churchill Falls in Labrador was evacuated as fire approached the community and the hydro electric plant. This was soon followed by increased fire activity in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and more activity in Labrador affecting thousands of people.

International personnel from Australia and New Zealand arrived mid to late July to assist both British Columbia and Alberta as there was significant competition for domestic resources. Soon after additional firefighters from South Africa, Costa Rica, and Mexico arrived. Concerns continued in northern Alberta where communities remained under threat from wildfires. The fires in Labrador began to come under control but high fire danger remained. By late July the Town of Jasper and Parks Canada jointly announced an evacuation order for all residents and tourists of the National Park. On July 24th, fire breached the town of Jasper.

August saw increased activity in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and across the United States as the number of active fires continued to rise. Evacuations in remote areas of Manitoba prompted a formal request for federal assistance to use Canadian Armed Forces airlift resources to assist evacuation efforts as fire was spreading rapidly.

By mid-August the evacuation order for residents of the Town of Jasper was lifted, however tourists were not allowed to return at this time. By early September the Jasper complex of wildfires were declared officially under control and international personnel began to demobilize. By mid-September the Municipality of Jasper lifted its is State of Emergency.

By the end of September, the final evacuation order was lifted in Grand Forks, BC but fire activity in the United States remained quite active. In mid-October Canadian fire management agencies were able to return the favour to our southern neighbors and responded to the request for personnel from the National Interagency Fire Centre in the United States.

Prognosis

This year’s fire season began early with dry spring conditions and high fire danger ratings in the prairies. Communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec saw spring evacuation alerts and orders throughout March to May. Following a relatively busy spring, there were numerous evacuation orders throughout the summer across the previously mentioned provinces as well as Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories and Yukon due to wildfire. The overall evacuation numbers for the year was well above its 20-year average, but much lower than 2023. Final numbers are not yet available.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre National Fire Summary, 5,686 fires have been recorded nationally in 2024, burning a total of 5,378,075 hectares (ha). For comparative purposes, the total number of fires and area burned last year according to CIFFC (5,475 fires; 17,347,637 ha), and the 10-year average (5,736 fires; 3,512,889 ha) as reported in the Canadian National Fire Database (CNFDB).

According to the National Area Burned Composite (NBAC) database, a system which chooses the best available source of data and is updated annually, in terms of area burned, this year is trending to be the fourth highest recorded with the previous recorded in 1994 (5,042,102 ha). This is subject to change, as fire management agencies continue to map and recalculate areas burned.

According to CIFFC, British Columbia saw the most wildfires so far this year (1,687), followed by Alberta (1,224). In terms of area burned Northwest Territories (1.69 M ha) and British Columbia (1.07 M ha), each had over a million hectares burned. Estimated area burned was above the 10-year average in British Columbia, Yukon, Alberta, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador. It was lower than the 10-year average in all other agencies.

The total area burned may change as provinces and territories continue to map their respective fires.

Prognosis:

We will not be providing a weather prognosis. Weekly national situation reports will resume Spring 2025.

2024 In-Review

The year 2024 is the second year since the prolonged 2020--2022 La Niña transformed into an El Niño, although in 2024 the El Niño appeared to be fading into another weak to moderate La Niña. It did not materialize, and even by the end of October, this oscillation was still neutral. Drought that emerged in 2022 and continued through 2023 and 2024 may be following a similar pattern to the early 2000s event that followed the extended 1998-2001 La Niña.

Drought was absent in 2023 in places such as central Alberta, although it redeveloped over the warm and dry 2023-24 El Niño winter. Other regions had drought intensify, although it vanished in Yukon over the winter and spring. The large portion of Canada in drought worried some people, who felt 2024 may be a worse fire year than 2023. With some climate drivers in different phases than in 2023, and early season NRCan forecasts suggesting a tamer season, messaging focused on some areas having ongoing fire problems, but that Canada would not face as widespread intense fire activity as during 2023.

With the winter of 2023-24 warm and dry across much of Canada, some regions had little snow cover. In southern regions, it was sporadic; here spring runoff was negligible. In areas that carried a winter snowpack (the Territories and northern parts of the provinces), snowmelt occurred at a normal rate. Spring resembled a typical transition period between El Niño and La Niña, with mixed weather conditions. April resembled an El Niño month with warm and dry conditions in much of Canada, while May featured mixed conditions. Drought and active fire, some holdovers, and some new blazes continued in the juncture of the British Columbia, Alberta, and Northwest Territories borders; this area was constantly missed by rain that affected areas further east and south. Fires here, and in central Saskatchewan and Manitoba, became very active prior to mid-May during a brief hot and windy period. A stagnant low pressure trough brought rain to many areas soon after, reducing fire activity. By the end of May, the number of fires and area burned were very close to the 10-year normals.

During June, hot and dry air lingered over northern Quebec and affected other eastern regions for a shorter period. Temperatures up to 38C occurred during this spell. An anomalously warm pattern also affected the Northwest Territories. Meanwhile, cool and moist weather affected much of western Canada, where some record lows were recorded under a stagnant Arctic air mass. Total precipitation was heavier than normal through most of the boreal forest and southern parts of eastern Canada through the first half of June, and fire numbers and area burned remained normal by month’s end.

Near the end of June, conditions in western Canada began to dry, continuing into July as a very large and slow-moving high pressure ridge began crossing the country. This forced moisture into the extreme northern parts of the provinces and southern Territories, although amounts were expected to remain light and scattered, allowing continued fire activity. July was the hottest month on record in some eastern and western Canadian locations. Temperatures of up to 38C occurred in Alberta and 43C in British Columbia, with this period leading to the lightning-caused Jasper fire in late July. Drought began returning to much of Yukon, the Prairies, and the southern Atlantic region by the end of the month. In eastern Canada, only the east side of Hudson Bay and parts of the Arctic recorded slightly below normal temperatures. Heat affected Labrador and Newfoundland, although in early July, rain ended the June Churchill Falls fire that led to evacuation of the generating station and community. Periodic heat led to the Labrador City fire and subsequent July 12 evacuation, but rain soon helped reduce fire activity, and the evacuation order was rescinded on July 22.

During July, thunderstorms occurred in western and central Canada, with lightning strikes increasing fire activity, and boosting area burned past the normal value. The weather systems generating these storms generally did not bring widespread steady rainfall. While Canada’s cloud-to-ground lightning as of July 31 was at its lowest recorded level (77% of normal), Newfoundland/Labrador recorded just under 300% of normal July strikes and surpassed its annual average (120% of annual total). While July was dry in many regions, extreme rainfall in southern Ontario resulted in monthly records, mainly due to the remains of Hurricane Beryl merging with a mid-latitudes system. The Greater Toronto area reported a record July rainfall, close to 300% of normal. This combined system also gave high rainfalls in parts of southern Quebec and in thin strips through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Hot weather continued in August in many regions. Temperatures over 35C were recorded above the Arctic Circle and near 40C in some southern regions in the first half of the month. Drought began affecting northern Quebec and the northern Atlantic region by month’s end. While much of Canada remained dry, ample moisture fell in Yukon and higher elevations of southern British Columbia and Alberta. Heavy rainfall from the remains of Hurricanes Debby and Ernesto again caused record rainfalls in narrow bands in extreme southern Ontario and Quebec, but where wildfire is scarce.

Hot weather carried into September in many Canadian regions, with maximum temperatures around 35C late in the month in the southern Prairies, although periodic cool weather reduced the monthly temperature anomaly. Sustained fire activity near the northern BC/Alberta/NWT border juncture and in northern Saskatchewan helped drive national area burned well above the 10-year average. Strong thunderstorms passed through Manitoba and western Ontario during mid-September; this band separating cooler air in the west from a stubborn warm and dry ridge in the east. While Ontario’s rainfall pattern was mixed -- Thunder Bay received less than 10% of its normal monthly September total -- drying was more consistent farther east, except in a narrow band from the central and northern Ontario/Quebec border through northern Quebec and into Labrador.

By the end of September, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada estimated about 65% of Canada was undergoing some level of dryness. This figure excludes Nunavut, where drought is currently not assessed; however, values along the Northwest Territories/Nunavut border indicates it likely still extends into mainland Nunavut. Drought Code (DC) values heading into winter are high across much of Canada, with spots along the northern shore of Lake Superior over 400, resembling normal late summer values in many western regions. These high values may affect early spring fire activity in 2025 if winter and spring precipitation is low. Values are 300 or higher in northern Quebec and spots in the Maritime Provinces, although these regions normally receive enough precipitation to zero the DC by spring.

Weekly graphs (current as of: November 20, 2024)