Table of contents

Report a wildfire: If you see a wildfire in a forested area call 310-FIRE (3473)

Fire weather forecast office

Weather conditions are key factors for determining fire danger. Weather also strongly influences fire behaviour.

Alberta Wildfire maintains a year-round fire weather forecast office consisting of:

  • 4 fire weather meteorologists
  • 3 seasonal technicians

The weather office monitors changes in weather conditions that influence the fire environment. The weather section is responsible for:

  • producing 2 fire weather forecasts and briefings per day during the fire season (March to October)
  • providing time-sensitive spot forecasts and information for active fires and prescribed burns
  • providing weather expertise for fire management activities (including wildfire suppression, prescribed burns, forest health programs, pre-suppression planning and resource deployment)
  • supplying weather forecasts and updates to other provincial agencies
  • managing and archiving fire weather and lightning data from our remote sensing network
  • providing support to fire control training courses, especially fire weather and fire behaviour instruction

For recent wildfire maps, data and the fire danger forecast, see Wildfire forecasts and observations.

Annual fire weather reports

Each annual report summarizes the fire season from a synoptic weather perspective, highlighting the weather conditions that lead up to extreme fire danger.

Alberta fire weather report

Fire weather stations

The Forestry Division operates a network of close to 200 fire weather stations to monitor fire danger in Alberta’s forests.

A fire weather reading is taken at 13:00 MDT (local noon) to calculate fire danger using the Canadian Fire Weather Index System.

  • Active fire weather stations

    View a map and list of Alberta’s active weather stations.

  • Types of weather stations

    There are 5 primary types of weather stations that report the weather variables necessary to calculate the fire danger:

    Weather station Report frequency Stations currently in operation
    Lookout towers Twice daily 125
    Ranger stations Once a day 12
    Contract stations Once a day 3
    Environment Canada METARS Once a day  
    Remote automatic weather stations Hourly 46

    Supplementary data is gathered in addition to the basic fire weather readings taken at 1 pm.

    • Lookout towers and automatic stations report a morning observation at 07:30 MDT to indicate overnight precipitation and the potential fire danger later in the day.
    • Automatic stations record hourly weather conditions and can be accessed at any time from headquarters.
    • Staffed weather stations report additional parameters such as visibility, current weather, cloud type, and maximum and minimum temperature.

    All this additional information gives meteorologists and fire managers a better picture of the current weather situation.

    In addition to the above station types, the weather section manages a network of 129 rain gauge stations.

  • Weather report format

    Weather Report Format (PDF, 46 KB)

    The basic fire weather reading consists of:

    • precipitation
    • relative humidity
    • temperature
    • wind direction and speed

Contact

For questions about weather data, forecasts and observations:
Email: [email protected]

Forest area office contacts

Information line: 1-866-394-3473 (FYI-FIRE)
Media inquiries: 780-420-1968
Email: [email protected]

Download the Alberta Wildfire app

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