As Montana holds Little League tryouts for the 2015 wildfire season, Canada is showing the planet how to really burn a summer.
Alberta authorities were battling 116 fires by the end of last week, including 46 reported as “out of control,” according to provincial officials.
At British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, a 50-acre fire near Nanaimo forced the evacuation of 12 homes Thursday. Island Timberlands, Vancouver Island’s major private timber company, closed public access to many of its roads on the east side of the island because of the fire danger.
In Saskatchewan, more than 5,000 people had to be evacuated as 51 towns, villages and reserves were threatened by fires in the northern part of the province, according to Canadian news sources.
Saskatchewan has recorded 520 forest fires this year – three times the number reported in 2014.
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And Alaska is contending for its own wildfire records.
Already this summer, that state has 300 fires going across 624,000 acres. It recently set a one-day record of 67 new starts reported.
In the continental United States, 14 new large fires have started in Oregon and Washington since the end of June. Those two states are reporting many snow-monitoring sites recording their lowest January-June precipitation in 35 years.
In the northern Rocky Mountains, the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued July 1 called for higher-than-usual temperatures and minimal summer precipitation through July and into August.
Northwest Montana remains at “above normal” potential for significant wildland fire through both months. Dead-fuel moisture levels are “as dry or drier than what is typically observed at the peak of fire season in August,” the report stated.
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Americans got a dose of Canadian fire residuals last week, when an unusual weather system blew Alaskan and Canadian smoke across eastern Montana and straight through the Midwest.
On Friday, the state Department of Environmental Quality Wildfire Smoke Update reported “unhealthy” conditions in Malta and Lewistown, while Great Falls, Bozeman and Billings were listed as “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”
“Unfortunately, the smoke will likely linger in many areas for much of the day and parts of tomorrow,” the Friday report stated. “There may be intermittent improvement in places, but overall expect hazy skies and periods of decreased air quality through Saturday morning.”
The picture could get complicated as a cold front pushes much of the smoke east and south out of Montana. However, that front also was expected to bring conditions conducive to new fires in western Montana.
A red flag weather warning was in effect for much of western Montana Saturday, prompting everything from fireworks bans to the cancellation of community pyrotechnic shows.
