Canadian Wild Fires

Pretty crazy how many fires are going on up there. I know it is a part of the natural cycle to some extent, but is Canada also in a drought?

Will be heading deep into the Ontario woods this weekend and hope it’s not too bad. No fires in our immediate area and it looks like the worst is east of us – The northeast US looks like something out of the dust bowl the smoke is so bad.

Western Canada has experienced its warmest and driest “spring” on record. That’s where our wildfire smoke has come from. Recently, more fires have started burning in Quebec and other parts of eastern Canada, and that smoke is what is drifting south to the east coast of the US.

There is a stationary ridge of high pressure parked over Canada that basically hasn’t moved in weeks. That ridge is what is creating such hot and dry weather here too. Its preventing low pressure fronts from reaching us, which are the big rain makers.

It doesn’t appear to be moving much either, which means for the foreseeable future, we’ll continue to have warmer and drier weather, occasionally filled with smoke.

Wouldn’t surprise me to see a significant portion of MN move into stage 3 drought by the 4th of July at this pace. There could also be burning/campfire restrictions coming soon too.

I was in NY yesterday and got delayed coming home because of the smoke. Never scene anything like it. The pictures don’t do it justice. The sight and smell was surreal.

It was perfectly sunny in the morning and then the wind picked up about noon and it blew in immediately. You couldn’t see the tops of the buildings from the ground.

quetico is on a fireban as of a couple days ago. fingers crossed the bwca stays free and clear for a couple more weeks

https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

Just got back from Rainy Lake, North Arm.
On Sunday we watched the storm blow in, watched and listened to lighting for a couple hours. Poured like crazy, could watch the wall of water come across the bay. Around 5 pm we headed back out, noticed some smoke and went to investigate. Was a fire burning in back of one of the bays about a mile from our place. We had heard the lighting and saw the flash at the same time and knew it must be close but….. went ashore and checked it out. Headed to Fort Frances and alerted the Forest guys who took up the charge from there. With all that rain it just seems so amazing it was burning like that. There was at least one other plume of smoke we could see as well after that but the Forest Service was on it.
Just North of Rebecca island on your way to Pillsbury island if you are familiar with the area.

So are we in store for another summer full of smoke? Full smoke out here.

It was very smoky today. I really don’t know how the smoke can hang that low in the atmosphere but it’s kinda getting old.

lindyrig79 wrote:

It was very smoky today. I really don’t know how the smoke can hang that low in the atmosphere but it’s kinda getting old.

Yup the smoke last year was tuff on my allergies. Hopefully not another summer of that.

The good news is there are probably 9 billion masks sitting in warehouses somewhere.

Dutchboy wrote:

The good news is there are probably 9 billion masks sitting in warehouses somewhere.

Did not even realize they were having fire problems this spring up there. Got a message from someone who seasonally camps at the campground we use for our spring Canada trip in Manitoba. They are delaying the opening of the campground due to the fires in the area. I guess they evacuated homes in the Cranberry Portage area and some in the Fin Flon area. They do have a few days of rain in the forecast starting Thur. Hopefully that will help put some of them out. Its crazy the amount of fires they have had in the last few years.

7 or 8 years ago, we were fishing in Northern Manitoba and our week was done and my brother in law and I were the last ones flown out of camp. It was raining and storms were in the area. We were flying back in drizzle and “CAAARACK” lightening streaks down on our right and hits a tree… in 10 seconds 20 trees were on fire and it was spreading quickly… the saving grace was there was a lake about 300 yards in front of it & and the wind was blowing it right to it, that should have extinguished it, the pilot asked if we minded if she flew over it to get coordinates and call it in… we thought “cool”… it wasn’t cool.. I could feel the heat from the fire in the plane, she was so low to it !!! It was a crazy thing to witness firsthand, but I seen how easy them fires start.

The sure signs of Summer in Minnesota:

-song birds chirping
-lawn mowers humming
-the fresh smell of lilacs
-choking on smoke as Canada burns

buckybadger wrote:

The sure signs of Summer in Minnesota:

-song birds chirping
-lawn mowers humming
-the fresh smell of lilacs
-choking on smoke as Canada burns

You forgot the neighbor using his leaf blower for 3 straight hours on a Sunday morning!

I’m not accepting “lightning” as an excuse. That’s like blaming witchcraft. This is clearly Canadas fault for becoming so liberal. Big_G I think your experience would have earned me a new nickname based on my unflattering reaction if that had been me. Something like “The Brown Flash” comes to mind.

Riverrat wrote:

I’m not accepting “lightning” as an excuse. That’s like blaming witchcraft. This is clearly Canadas fault for becoming so liberal. Big_G I think your experience would have earned me a new nickname based on my unflattering reaction if that had been me. Something like “The Brown Flash” comes to mind.

That is some magnificent word salad there.

Surely we dodged a few missiles as we were in the no fly zone too… true story.

That is some magnificent word salad there.
[/quote]

Not DC level like this gem:

“We will work together, and continue to work together, to address these issues…and to work together as we continue to work, operating from the new norms, rules, and agreements, that we will convene to work together…we will work on this together.”

Is that even real? LOL

Pretty much but it’s paraphrased above. Go to 3:12 or so:

Hahaha!

So what has changed that now fires just burn in Canada from May to October? Yes, there used to be the occasional smoky day, but nothing like we saw all summer last year and now the fun starts again.

Is Canada just not fighting forest fires because it costs too much?

Interesting how Canada has a new carbon tax to fight climate change and yet millions of tons of carbon from forest fires are being released every day. Apparently, the unchecked Canadian wildfires are the equivalent of dozens of coal-fired power plants, but with no emissions controls.

Summer in Minnesota. You might die of asphyxiation from Canadian wildfire smoke, but so will the mosquitos. Enjoy it while you last.

Grouse I read somewhere that Canada doesn’t cut as many fire roads and such as they use to. I don’t know if it’s true or not but I do know thats a big ass country with few people between Toronto and the West Coast.

I’m sure unless the fire is threatening a town or city they just let them burn themselves out.