General Chat

Thinking of our Canadian friends. Hope none are caught up in this horrendous fire.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36215046

Frightening to see how close the fire was to the fleeing residents in cars, just hope the weather changes in favour of the fire services.

So scary to see, we are so lucky living here.

Hoping the residents got to safety.

Looks awful can't even begin to think how we'd cope in the same circumstances. Just made a donation to the Canadian red cross they'll need all the help they can get in Alberta.

they definitely do need all the help they can get ..........

............ the weather is not improving, and therefore the fire situation is continuing to be dire.

BC is the next province to the west of Alberta ............ and is in the same situation re dryness and weather conditions. In fact, they have so many fires themselves that they cannot spare any fire fighters to go help the Fort Mac ones.

It has been a very dry spring, and the snow pack was once again low in BC and Alberta .......... consequently the fire season has started early. Both provinces had wild fires as early as the beginning of April. It's usually May.

BC has had 203 wild fires so far this year since April 1, vs 93 in the same period last year ............... and last year was one of the worst on record.


But Fort Mac is the largest city to have to be completely evacuated in recent years.

88,000 people trying to flee along the one and only highway is beyond comprehension!


To answer Pat's question ................... I don't think we have any members that far north in Alberta. We do, or did, have a couple who lived in northern BC, but they are not so far as I know in the current danger area there.

As a further note ............ it seems that 2 people were killed in a car crash yesterday that happened further south on the highway, close to Edmonton, I believe.

They had, I understand, left Fort Mac on Tuesday, camped overnight somewhere, but then something happened.

Details are still very short on what happened.

Those are the only casualties that I have heard about .....................


but many people did have to leave their pets or other animals behind.

truly heartbreaking - I have a cousin Canada but no idea where - will have to find out

thinking how little we hear of Canada in the news

you mean you haven't heard about our heart throb???????????

I thought he'd been in the news all over the world :-D

Trudeau?

Thank you Sylvia for updating the situation.

Have checked on the news this morning and they are trying to airlift some of the people. There is a weather forecast for rain, I do hope they get a downpour that helps stop the fire.

Pat .............

We're not hearing that here ...........

Weather reports here this evening say there is no sign of a good rain fall, and that that is the only way the Alberta fire is going to be knocked down. It is too large and fierce for anything other than a good rain fall.

There are now 22 water bombers, plus helicopters, dropping water and fire retardant, and they are not making much of a dent in it. Some of the bombers can carry 6,000 litres of water.

Hints are being given that it will be "more than days" before people will be allowed back in to Fort Mac.

I must buy a decent map of Canada. I am not very sure of its geography. I know I have relatives in Saskatchewan, wherever that is in relation to Alberta and BC.

This is on the BBC News site and is the last sentence on the article about the fire Sylvia.

Cooler temperatures and rain are forecast, giving hope that it could become easier to contain the blaze.

discovered my cousin lives in Quebec

Fort McMurray is several hundred kilometres to the north of where I live. The wildfire meant that 80,000 people were evacuated. It must have been terrifying driving through this area.

Here is a dash cam video taken by Michel Cumberland as he escaped his neighbourhood. The flames are right beside him as he drove out of the area where he lived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E_OLgC4nV0

My sister lives near Calgary, so is fortunately nowhere near the fires. She says they have had a fairly mild winter with much less snow than usual.

Andysmum .............

this is part of the problem ...... it has been a mild winter in large areas of Canada, and higher temperatures than normal in March and April

Less snow + higher temperatures means faster snow melt, and dry grass, shrubs and trees.

I live in a major city in BC, and we will be starting water restrictions on May 15th, it's usually June 1. A fire ban on campfires in an area in central BC has been in place for at least the last 3 weeks.

The fire warnings are currently high to extreme over much of BC, most of Alberta, and most of Saskatchewan .................. the 3 western provinces.

For the rest of the country, fire warnings are extreme in south western Ontario, then moderate to high eastwards to New Brunswick


see the map ...........

http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/maps/fw

Will need to speak to my Canadian cousins and see how they're affected as they live in St Catharines, Ontario.

Pat .............

I'm not sure where the BBC got their forecast from ........... we do sometimes find what they say on the World Service does not fit what our local forecasters say :-)

The current forecast for Fort McMurray ............

Today ......... 21C Precipitation 0% Humidity 20% Wind 14 kmh Sun

Saturday .... 28C Precipitation 0% Humidity 23% Wind 16 kmh Sun

Sunday ....... 19C Precipitation 10% Humidity 33% Wind 29 kmh Sunny partly cloudy

Monday ....... 13C Precipitation 10% Humidity 40% Wind 23% Cloudy

There is no rain shown through at least next Friday

Of course, there might be no cloud in the forecast, but the area is covered with thick smoke which is keeping out the sun, but also keeping in the heat from the flames.


Having said all that ............... this fire is now so large at 100,000 hectares that it actually forms its own weather system. There is an effect where the heat from the fire rises and generates its own winds, and creating its own lightening. Dry lightening is very dangerous when the vegetation is as dry as it now is.

I think what that basically means is that .............. the weather in the Fort McMurray area cannot be forecast because who knows what the fire effect will be.

Tawny ............

St Catherines is in southern Ontario. on the Niagara River ............... thousands of kilometres away from Alberta. It's a lovely place.