Warnings and watches for rainfall or thunderstorms covered much of the west and middle of the province by Sunday afternoon, including areas with some of the largest wildfires burning out of control.
Environment Canada warned of a “long episode of rain, at times, heavy” and between 50 to 75 millimetres by Wednesday for a number of places including Edson, Whitecourt, Fox Creek, Slave Lake and Rocky Mountain House areas. Showers were expected to develop Sunday evening, intensify overnight, and continue into the middle of the week, potentially enough to cause flash floods and water pooling on the roads. More northern areas, such as around Grande Prairie were also expecting rain.
Alberta’s wildfires have blanketed much of the province in smoke over the May long weekend with the Air Quality Health Index for Edmonton, and other areas, holding at the maximum rating of 10+, which is considered very high risk.
But the smoke has also lessened wildfire behaviour this weekend — only five new starts were reported from Friday morning to Sunday morning.
More than 1,700 provincial firefighting staff worked over the weekend alongside more than 1,000 firefighters from across the continent from Alaska to New Brunswick.
As of Sunday afternoon, there were 84 active wildfires, of which 23 were out of control.
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