Regular rainfall results in quiet wildfire season in northwestern Ontario

While Western Canada struggles with a devestating wildfire season, including anout-of-control wildfire that has already destroyed part of Jasper, Alta., the number of wildfires across Ontario has been well below average, according to data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).

The province logged 273 fires between Jan. 1 and Aug. 12, 2024 with 141 of them occurring innorthwestern Ontario. That's well below the 10-year average for the same time period of 576 fires, and less than half the number of fires in the province during the same period in 2023, when 615 fires had been recorded.

This year's fires have so far burned nearly 27,000hectares of land 7,667 in the northwest compared to an annual average over the past 10 years of nearly 200,000hectares of land during the same time period.

Rainfall well above 2021 levels

"We did come into this season with extensive drought across a lot of the country, including parts of Ontario," said Chelene Hanes, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service.

"And we didn't get a lot of snow pack And so there were folks that were worried. But what did happen in Ontario, which didn't necessarily happen in other parts of the country, is we got a lot of rain this spring."

Kenora received approximately 300 mmof rain between April 1,the start of wildfire season,and July 31 of this year, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The area saw just over 185 mmof precipitation during the same time period in 2021, the year that multiple large fires forced evacuations from the town of Red Lake and several First Nations, including Pikangikum, Poplar Hill and Deer Lake.

The weather station at Ear Falls, approximately an hour south of Red Lake, recorded just over 436 mm of precipitation between Jan. 1 and July 31 of this year including 150 mm in June alone. During the same period in 2021, it recorded just 196.2 mm.

WATCH |Jasper residents can return home Friday after devastating wildfire:

Jasper residents can return home Friday after devastating wildfire

17 days ago

Duration 12:31

Three weeks after a wildfire forced a mass evacuation of Jasper National Park, thousands of people forced from their homes will be allowed to return to the town on Friday. Also, the co-author of a new study about the lingering effects of PTSD in wildfire evacuees gives some perspective on what Jasper residents might experience in weeks or months to come.

"We cannot just depend on winter weather to determine if it is indeed a bad season," said Gerald Cheng, a meteorologist with the weather agency.

"We obviously have to give information in April because people are asking to prepare for a possible bad summer. But it also really depends what happens in the spring. And you can see the numbers from the spring that we had a lot of precipitation, so that really changed the course of what will be for northwestern Ontario."

Moisture levels in the fuel on Ontario's forest floors has been "pretty seasonal" this year,Hanes said.

Some pockets along the coast of Lake Superior are drier than the 30-year-averages for the area, she said. But they are not outside typical ranges.

"2021 was one of the busiest years that Ontario has seen since the '80s, and we saw drought values well above the 30 year maximums," she said.

"This year is a lot lower than that, particularly in the northwest. It's just we've been getting a lot of precipitation, and it's just keeping things wetter which is good to prevent fires."

WATCH| Ontario sends firefighters to assist in Manitoba:

Northern Ontario fire crews head to Manitoba to help fight wildfires

4 months ago

Duration 0:37

Fire crews from northern Ontario are in northwest Manitoba helping fight the wildfire burning near Cranberry Portage, Man.. Officials say 41 personnel have been deployed to help fight the 31,000-hectare fire.

The slow fire season has meant that Ontario has been able to send resources out of province to help with fires in other parts of the country, according to Chris Marchand, a fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry's Aviation Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES).

Ontario currently has a26-person incident management team deployed in Alberta to help with thebusy wildland fire season there, Marchand said.

Since the start of the fire season on April 1, AFFES has sent 419 fire rangersand 150 overhead staffto helppartner agencies, primarily in Western Canada.