Alberta declares an early start to wildfire season

Yeah. Totally worth the $30 mill cut from the wild fire prevention services since 2018 (~25% of the budget). And the $350 mill cut off the wildfire contingency fund (~75% of previous budget). Get used to the smoke everyone.

I'm in northern Ontario near Sudbury and we have less than half the usual amount of winter snow up here this year. That means there will be a lot less spring run off to keep our forests wet this spring and summer. Winter snow and ice which we normally get lots of generate so much water runoff that it usually keeps rivers and lakes full until about June. Then by the time all the high water runs out, the weather is starting to cool off for late summer and autumn.

The way things are going this year, everything is going to be bone dry by June when the hot weather hits. The forests will be thousands of acres of kindling in the hot summer sun and all they will need is a spark ... a spark from a cigarette, a spark from a camp fire, a spark from a chimney, a spark from the iron wheels on a railway track, a spark from a lightning strike.

For everyone in northeastern North America ... take a deep breath of fresh air ... I don't think we're going to have much of it this summer.

If you are reading this, and you live in an area that got hit with forest fire smoke last year, prepare now and get supplies to build a DIY HEPA filter setup for your home with guides like this:

https://deohs.washington.edu/edge/blog/how-make-box-fan-filter-clean-indoor-air-smoke

I've already got my set up ready because I had to last year.

Get your supplies now because when the smoke starts, none of these supplies will be available anywhere when everyone starts panic buying for them at the last minute.

It never really stopped this year with how dry it was. We had some wildfires in Dec and Jan, not as many but still, eesh.

Jan 1st many lawns in my neighborhood were still devoid of snow and dry dead grass was everywhere.