Officials predict 'normal' start to Yukon wildfire season
Technology and weather forecasts help scientists know what to expect this summer
Asking what the wildfire season is going to be like this summer in Yukon often garners the same response from officials: "It all depends."
The Yukon government's chief meteorologist says they can get a pretty good idea of what lies ahead, thanks to technology and weather predictions.
And this year, they're not predicting anything unusual when it comes to wildfires.
"In terms of fire conditions, our snow has been melting and disappearing in the valley bottoms, basically right around the long-term average for the last 15 years," said chief meteorologist Mike Smith.
"That dictates when we might start to see fires for the year, and the best we can say there is, 'normal.'"
Predicting wildfires can be as much an art as it is a science.
But officials have a number of tools to help inform their predictions. They have been using up-to-the-minute satellite mapping and remote sensing technologies to get an understanding of what to expect this fire season.
Getting out in the field and seeing what conditions are like on the ground can also help paint a more accurate picture.
Smith says looking at moisture content in the ground is useful.
"Which is how much moisture is in the deep forest floor layers, as well as the large, dead, downed trees — and that can give us an indication for large or hard to extinguish fires," he said.
But officials say what they can't predict is the human factor. Yukon Wildland Fire Management say many wildfires are still caused by people.
Right now, there are four active wildfires in Yukon.
Last year, there were 115 wildfires in Yukon that burned a total of 471,000 hectares of forest.
Flooding and ice jams
Emergency officials have also been looking at flooding risk this spring.
Rick Janowicz, a hydrologist for the Yukon government, says Dawson City and Old Crow are susceptible to river ice-jams and flooding.
He says there shouldn't be any flooding issues in Dawson this year, but officials are keeping a close eye on Old Crow.
"The snow pack is a little bit greater than normal also in the Porcupine Basin, so we will be monitoring break up conditions," Janowicz said.
