CALGARY—As hard as it is to believe with snow still blanketing much of the province, wildfire season is now underway.

In Alberta, the season opens March 1, which means Alberta Wildfire has begun preparing firefighting crews to ensure they’re in place around the province. The season begins this early to account for how much longer Alberta summers are lasting in recent years, and so experts have enough time to forecast what kind of season to expect.

“We’re already seeing longer fire seasons, we’re seeing bigger, more intense fires. British Columbia has had two really bad seasons in a row,” said Glenn McGillivray, managing director with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

In 2018, Alberta experienced 1,288 wildfires, down from its five-year average of 1,414. But the province was hit hard by a bad year for fires in B.C. Smoke blown into the province from B.C. led to air-quality levels exceeding 10, the worst possible score by Environment Canada’s measure.

It’s still too early to predict what the 2019 wildfire season will bring because how much precipitation Alberta gets in the spring plays a big role in determining how bad a fire season will be.

But experts will be keeping an eye on a few indicators over the next few months.

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The “green up” process is a vital part of the transition into wildfire season, when moisture causes new vegetation to sprout. And it helps when the snow melts slowly, according to Alberta Agriculture and Forestry spokesperson Melissa Story.

“If we have a quick and early spring where snow melts super fast, then we often don’t see the runoff that will absorb into the ground. But that all depends on what our spring will look like,” Story said.

This year, the provincial government’s monitoring shows snowfall levels around the province have mostly been on par with past years, including in forested areas around the mountains.

One exception though is much of southern Alberta. University of Calgary biological sciences professor Edward Johnson said it’s unclear whether the amount of snow the area received in the fall, combined with the recent snowfall, is enough to counteract a snow drought that the area experienced as recently as January.

“If we don’t have any snow and it stays dry and we don’t get the snow (in southern Alberta) in April or May, a big snowstorm, then there is the possibility of grass fires,” Johnson said.

“There’s this window in (the spring) where if you don’t have snow, and it’s before we start getting the summer warm air coming up from the south, which causes a lot of precipitation, either snow or rain, then you can have fires.”

Johnson added that the weather patterns likely to cause wildfires are becoming more frequent as climate change warms Alberta’s summers. Warmer temperatures more easily lead to combustion, and vegetation without enough moisture is more flammable. And the longer and hotter fire seasons can lead to bigger, more intense fires that last longer.

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The province is still using its FireSmart educational campaign to prevent wildfires this year, which Story said officials think is an effective tool — especially since 60 per cent of Alberta’s wildfires last year were caused by humans.

Story said the government is also reminding people to buy fire permits for any planned burning, except campfires, in the province’s Forest Protection Area. These permits are free and can be requested from any Agriculture and Forestry office, and are meant to prevent against false calls that take firefighting resources away from wildfires.

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