CALGARY — For a brief and fleeting 24 hours, Alberta had no active wildfires, a historic moment — that had not occurred for over 40 years in August.The moment was captured on Tuesday, when Alberta Wildfires announced there was no wildfire smoke brewing in the entire province — which lasted for 24 hours, until one fire made the record go up in smoke, Tuesday night.This represents an even larger striking anomaly in Alberta's wildfire pattern so far, as Alberta has seen just 3% of its five-year average of wildfires this year, according to Postmedia.This means approximately 97% of normal fire season incidents have yet to occur..This is due to a culmination of factors, including the gradual snowmelt and record June rain, amounting to almost 18,000 hectares worth of forest fires burned.Over the past five years, Alberta has had an average of 650,000 hectares worth of fires annually."We had to go back in the historical records to find out that it was the first time in over 40 years that we had recorded a wildfire-free day in August in the province of Alberta,” stated Melissa Story, provincial information officer with Alberta Wildfire.“We got to have about 24 hours of glory and enjoy that before we got a couple new ones on the dashboard.”.Janelle Gergely, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada made a notable connection that occurred to Alberta's wildfires in the span of four weeks. In July, there were 17 wildfires, "So that means over the course of four weeks, all those fires were able to be kept under control and extinguished,” she stated.“Over the forested region of Alberta, we had a negative temperature anomaly (relative to the province’s 30-year average),” Gergely expanded.“It was three to four degrees below normal on average over those four weeks. And precipitation was near normal.”.Fire season is also about snow — and since there was quite a bit this past winter, it melted slowly without searing temperatures, giving meltwater a chance to soak into the ground.With the meltwater absorbed, the grass turned green instead of dry and flammable. For fires to spread, tinder, especially grass, must dry out setting the stage for optimal flammable circumstances, adding a few days of heat without rain, with low relative humidity and brisk winds, optimal wildfire weather is created, points out Gergely. As of Thursday, the one current wildfire in the province is reported "under control."
