While rain fell at greater than normal levels during July, it has not completely stopped worries about forest fires in Jasper National Park for the rest of the summer. The park is still drier than long term averages and a short, sustained burst of hot, sunny, dry weather could quickly push fire warnings back into the extreme levels, say Parks officials.

This has not been a summer of sunshine. People around town are complaining about not getting the tan they’re used to. Tourists have been spotted in long pants and wind breakers at much greater frequencies. Summer, to paraphrase, has been a bit of a bummer. 

Part of the reason why has been the greater rainfalls. If you thought that July was wetter than normal, you’d be right. According to statistics from Parks Canada, in July of this year there were 74 mm of falling wet stuff in the area. The long-term average for July is around 53 mm. Remarkably, from July 12 to the 24th alone, there were 67.6 mm. In short, July was wet.

While Parks officials and fire authorities were on edge during the beginning of the summer when fires around the province were cropping up at much greater than normal frequencies, the July rains kept those fears at bay, but only temporarily. The wet stuff doesn’t necessarily mean that Jasper is out of the woods for fire danger during the rest of the summer. 

“There’s still a significant risk of fire for the rest of the summer, no doubt,” said Kim Weir, a fire communications officer with Jasper National Park. “It was wetter than average in July but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no more worries.”

Part of the reason for this is because things have been drier than long-term averages in Jasper for the last nine to ten years, said Weir. While July was wet, it fits into a larger pattern of dryness. Weir said that over that time, Jasper has basically been experiencing drought-like conditions.

“The average rainfall over these years, the average snowfall too, it’s certainly way down from historical averages,” said Weir.

Fitting into this pattern, June of 2010 was unusually dry. Coming off of one of the driest winters in Canadian history, there was only 8 per cent of the normal precipitation in June in Jasper National Park.

During this time, the drought code (the code is the measure that Parks Canada uses to gauge the dryness of the ground some 30 cm deep) for the park was at 800. That’s incredibly high, said Weir, and a real danger for a major fire. The higher the drought code goes, the more worry there is about extremely destructive blazes.

The drought code right now sits around 500. That’s still drier than normal long term averages, said Weir, and certainly not enough to kibosh worries about fire for the rest of the summer. It is considerably less than 800, clearly, but the upcoming months could easily push the drought code numbers into higher ranges.

According to climate and precipitation data from August and September, these months are typically dry months for the park, said Weir. Just last year, the Mt. Cumnock fire burned from August 1 until mid-October some 30 km north-east of Jasper. A significant fire, it was definitely spurred on by the typically dry conditions in the tailing months of summer, said Weir.

“We won’t be letting our guard down,” she said about Park’s preparedness for fire risks over the rest of the summer. Weather is notoriously fickle and hard to predict, but there will still be helicopters flying patrols, searching for signs that fires might be brewing. Fire crews will continue to stand ready to fight possible blazes.

Weir advises that people be on guard whenever they are starting a fire in Jasper, no matter where it is.

“Be vigilant. Keep a close eye on any fire you start and make sure to vigorously extinguish it,” said Weir.