The province has issued a fire ban for a portion of the forests in the Southern Rockies region as well as many provincial parks and recreation areas.
The ban extends from the Highwood River south to the U.S. border, and from south of Carnarvon Creek west to the British Columbia border.
Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) announced last Monday, August 22nd that the fire hazard in the region had reached Extreme levels, as a result of dry winds, low humidity and high temperatures over the past few weeks, and the fire ban was announced on Thursday, August 25th.
Extreme fire danger means large, erratically behaving wildfires can start quickly and spread extremely fast.
Fire bans have been issued at the following provincial sites: Chain Lakes Provincial Park, Cypress Hills Provincial Park, Lundbreck Falls Provincial Recreation Area, Oldman Dam Provincial Recreation Area, Waterton Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area, Police Outpost Provincial Park, Woolford Provincial Park, Jensen Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area, Lake McGregor Provincial Recreation Area, Little Bow Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area, Maycroft Provincial Recreation Area, Oldman River Provincial Recreation Area, Payne Lake Provincial Recreation Area, St. Mary Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area, and Travers Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area.
A park-wide fire ban was also issued for Waterton Lakes National Park on Thursday, as the area has been under High to Extreme fire hazard since July 28th, and has seen less than 11 millimetres of precipitation since July 24th.
Hot, dry conditions are expected to continue for at least the next week, SRD Southern Rockies Wildlife Information Officer Karen Ritchie says more fire bans could be implemented.