Fire and ice: Evacuation orders lifted as cooler weather hits Alberta

FILE: .@ABWildfire hard at work on McMillan Complex (SCX-001). Little growth over the last 24hrs. (Photo: @AlbertaWildfire/Twitter)

Several evacuation alerts have been lifted as cooler weather has made it easier for crews to battle forest fires in northern Alberta.

Alerts for the town of Slave Lake and several other communities in the area were removed Friday morning.

Officials said rain in the last 48 hours had helped ease the hazard at the south end of the McMillan fire, which was burning about 32 kilometres northeast of Slave Lake.

As the weather helped firefighters in the north, it caused bad driving conditions in the south.

“It’s been a lot of rain and then rain mixed with snow as we get a little bit farther south where there is a little bit colder air,” said Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“As you get a little bit into the higher terrain, where it gets even colder, we’ve had some significant snowfall amounts.”

Fougere said there was a report of about 25 centimetres of snow about 35 kilometres northwest of Cochrane, Alta.

“There is currently snow falling in parts of Calgary and west towards Canmore and Banff and those areas of higher terrain in the foothills.”

The snowfall in southwestern Alberta turned to rain north of Red Deer.

“This is providing much-needed moisture,” said Fougere. “Edmonton and Lloydminster just came through their driest spring in recorded history. In Edmonton, our statistics started in 1881.

“We just had the least amount of precipitation in a spring … and so that was what led to these extreme fire conditions over much of northern and eastern Alberta.”

Friday’s rain in and around Edmonton tapered off in northwestern Alberta.

“There were some areas that have had fires that did receive some precipitation,” said Fougere. “There would have been some up in the Slave Lake area.

“Unfortunately the areas of northern Alberta that have had some large fires, they haven’t got any precipitation with this system. But with the cooler air and the higher relative humidity, at least the fire weather conditions aren’t as bad as they have been in previous weeks.

”

Alberta Wildfire said five fires were burning out of control in northern Alberta, including the Chuckegg Creek fire near High Level, where 5,000 people were forced from their homes on the May long weekend as the flames advanced.

Residents of High Level and several nearby communities were able to return home earlier this week, but they remained on an evacuation alert.

“Due to no significant rainfall and winds, returning today out of the north, the fire may see an increase in fire activity,” said a Friday morning update.

Based on more accurate mapping, the last recorded size of the Chuckegg Creek fire, the largest in the province, was 2,660 square kilometres.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place for some areas of Mackenzie County, the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement, parts of the Municipal District of Opportunity and the Peerless Trout First Nation.