There are currently 91 active wildfires in the Forest Protection Area. Of these, 25 are out of control..On Saturday, Alberta is seeing scattered showers and thunderstorms in the southwest boreal and along the northern part of the Rocky Mountains.."Smoke makes it difficult for us to fly to assess wildfire action from the air but it does create cooler conditions that can weaken fire behaviour," said Christie Tucker, information unit manager at Alberta Wildfire.."We're still able to make progress on the ground with firefighters and heavy equipment working on fire break and burnout operations and extinguishing hotspots.".Tucker said showers will certainly be welcomed by firefighters but there is lightening.."We monitor thunderstorms very carefully. With lightning sensors fire centres across the forest protection area so we know where lightning struck. We can then send out patrols to investigate whether that lightning might have started a wildfire," Tucker said.."We've seen lightning strikes in the Edson and Grande Prairie areas today and we are monitoring as we look ahead. Our forecasters are tracking the front moving into the province, which should bring much-needed cooler temperatures, humidity and even rain. What we'd like to see is a long steady rain that will soak into the forest and into the ground. That will help us more than a short burst that would bring lightning and could spark a new wildfire.".There are currently 22 states of local emergency, five band council resolutions, and an estimated 10,673 Albertans have been evacuated at this time..There are also 14 reception centres open for affected areas, and the total number of evacuation orders now sits at 17..Tucker said one of the things that Alberta is seeing this weekend in the morning "is that we are seeing less fire behaviour than anticipated."."That is because the smoke is creating a kind of cloud cover. Now, with either smoke in the air, there's often not a significant amount of wind because the smoke will stay in place. So that's one of the things that we have noticed the winds have been lighter at the moment than anticipated," Tucker said.."Now as we move through the day generally the pattern of weather behaviour is that we work towards the early evening time around the time. Many people are on their way home from work, that's when we can see the most intense fire behaviour.".Tucker said the air is warmer than it is earlier in the day in Alberta.."Particularly with many parts waking up to smoke where we noticed the cooler temperatures, the overcast clouds and that will help lower the behaviour," Tucker said.."But if you start to sense the temperature warming up, the winds are starting that could help invigorate some of the fire behaviour."
