Recent rainfall drops Calgary Forest Area wildfire risk to low

An Alberta Wildfire crew member is seen in this undated image. (Alberta Wildfire/Facebook)

Recent precipitation has helped drop the wildfire risk in the Calgary forest area to low.

Alberta Wildfire provided an update for the Calgary Forest Area (CFA) on Monday, with further precipitation expected to help dampen the wildfire risk in some of the drier parts of the region.

“Some much-needed precipitation was registered in almost all our gauges across the area,” Wildfire Alberta said in the update.

The dip to low marks a change from last week, where the risk in the CFA was high, with some areas at very high or extreme risk of fire.

Fire crews have responded to 50 wildfires in the CFA since the start of the year, which have burned 12.3 hectares.

The Calgary Forest Area includes a large area in southwestern Alberta, stretching from areas west of Carstairs, Cochrane and Calgary, down to west of Pincher Creek.

While the fire danger in the western part of the province is mostly low, there are several parts of the east-central and southeast regions that still have moderate, high and very high fire risk.

Alberta fire danger map as of June 17, 2024. (Alberta Wildfire)

Across the province, as of 10 a.m. on June 17, there have been 435 wildfires recorded that have burned 27,986.5 hectares.

There are currently 11 active wildfires that are all under control, according to the Alberta Wildfire dashboard on Tuesday morning. That number includes five carryover fires from the 2023 season.

At this time last year, there were 45 active wildfires in Alberta.

All of the recorded active fires are located in central and northern Alberta.