WINNIPEG: A government meteorologist said on Saturday that rain is likely to help clear the smokey air in eastern Canada starting on Sunday, but it might take days for it to reach the forest fires raging in the province of Quebec.
On Saturday morning, 426 fires were reported across Canada, with 144 of them occurring in Quebec. The summer months are a common time for forest fires in Canada, but the size and timing of the present firestorm are unusual, Reuters said.
The flames, which are currently burning 4.4 million hectares each on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, have driven thousands of Canadians from their homes and spewed smoke that has left people in Toronto to New York gasping for air.
Gerald Cheng, a federal meteorologist, said reporters on Saturday that rain was anticipated on Sunday in southwest Quebec and southern Ontario. This rain is likely to assist remove the smoke.
Starting on Tuesday, the rain appears to be moving further north towards Quebec, where the worst flames are now burning, although Cheng said about 10-20 mm (0.4-0.8 inches) of precipitation is anticipated.
Our main worry is that there isn’t much rain, he added.
According to officials, there will be some 1,200 firemen fighting fires across Quebec by Monday, including more than 100 from France. Quebec is a highly forested province with 8.5 million residents that spans a larger area than Germany, Spain, and France put together.
“There is a chance that the situation will worsen during the following few days. However, the presence of French firemen is likely to be extremely helpful, according to Quebec’s Minister of Forests Maite Blanchette Vezina on Friday.
Towns in Quebec’s north have evacuated more than 13,000 residents.
The weather in British Columbia’s Pacific province improved on Saturday as firefighters battled a sizable 20,000-hectare (50,000-acre) wildfire in the isolated Rocky Mountain foothills close to the province’s eastern border with Alberta.
About 1,000 km (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, where Tumbler Ridge is a mostly evacuated hamlet, the winds that were prevailing from the west shifted to the east.
According to Karley Desrosiers, information officer for the B.C. Wildfire Service, temperatures also decreased, enabling firefighters to approach the fire closer.
Only 150 of the original 2,400 residents of Tumbler Ridge remain, and the distance to the fire is only 4 km (2 1/2 miles).
She stated, “I can’t say the risk has been eased because it hasn’t at all, but right now the weather is on our side.
Drizzling rain has helped, but because of the drought, the forest is so dry that more substantial rain is needed, according to Desrosiers.
