Firefighters quenching a brush fire a day in 'abnormally dry' spring

It's one of the driest starts to a year on record in Ottawa

Image | ottawa brush fire

Caption: Ottawa firefighters put out a brush fire earlier this month. They responded to 12 such fires between March 15 and 26. (Ottawa Fire Services/X)

Ottawa firefighters have responded to an average of one brush fire a day during what has turned out to be one of the driest starts to a year on record.
Ottawa Fire Services made the statement in social media posts Wednesday(external link), saying a brush fire in rural west Ottawa was the 12th between March 15 and 26.
There were two more fires in Kanata on Monday evening, Deputy Fire Chief Todd Horricks said Tuesday.
An open-air fire ban went into effect on Sunday. The ban includes campfires, agricultural burns and brush pile burns, and extends to those with permits.
Horricks said most years, burn bans begin in early to mid-April. This year, however, spring has arrived with "abnormally dry conditions due to a shortened winter(external link)."

Embed | Twitter

Open Full Embed in New Tab (external link)Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages.
According to a CBC analysis of weather data dating back to 1890(external link), it's Ottawa's second-driest start to the year on record.
About 122 millimetres of precipitation fell between Jan. 1 and March 25, about 83 millimetres below average. Just 101 millimetres fell during that same period in 2021.
The Deep River and Maniwaki areas have also been unusually dry, according to the most recent federal drought report(external link). Quebec's forest fire protection agency says there's a low fire risk for most of the Outaouais(external link).