With the spring season here and summer soon to follow, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) is taking a look at what's headed to the province in terms of safety risks this season. Most commonly, that can encompass flooding concerns and wildfires, which have the possibility to pop up once conditions are drier.
The Water Security Agency released their spring runoff report last month, which showed average runoff levels across the province with below-average moisture in the southeast and no imminent risk of flooding from reservoirs.
For wildfires, SPSA President Marlo Pritchard discussed some of what they've been looking at in terms of risks for wildfires in the province.
"At this time, we are anticipating areas where abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions are expected. However, the overall picture for Saskatchewan indicates better conditions than we saw in 2024. Climatology reports suggest that the southern half of Saskatchewan will experience an early start to the thunderstorm season, basically starting now, and the northern half of the province will experience a normal start to the season beginning mid to late May."
Those thunderstorms have the potential to cause wildfires, with Pritchard saying around half of those are caused by lightning strikes. The other half tend to be attributable to human activity.
Another factor may be temperatures, as conditions will change once we're all the way into summer.
"Temperature-wise, we are expecting colder and wetter than average temperatures across the prairies until April or the end of April. Near-average conditions are expected to redevelop in May. For the remainder of the spring months, we are expecting warmer-than-average temperatures across much of Canada. Early forecasting shows there is a potential for the summer months to be hotter than normal."
In order to prepare for wildfires, the agency declared the beginning to the wildfire season in April. For the province, Type 1 wildfire crews and Type 2 crews have returned or are in the process of being recalled. The Air Operations staff has also returned for the season, and the first air tanker group is already operational."
With fewer lightning strikes during spring, Pritchard says it's important to account for the other side of wildfires, human activity, when preventing burns across the province.
"In the early part of spring, we typically do not experience lightning, so fires that start now are likely to be human-caused. As a result, I urge everyone to take extreme precautions during the spring and early summer months. The SPSA will be putting out preventative messaging on social media and radio to remind everyone of the risks associated to human-caused fires. These wildfires are preventable. Don't let your fire go wild."
Pritchard recommends people not drive a vehicle on dry grass, drown out their campfires until the embers are cool, and talk to young children about fire safety to keep incidents down this year.
So far, fires appear to be down from last year, which had the second highest number of wildfires recorded. So far this year, there have been 23 reported burns, compared to 34 reported this time last year.
Pritchard says they are expecting to see fewer fires take off this year, though the situation can change.
"We expect to see a slight reprieve from last year for the spring conditions. But once we get our summer weather, it'll really determine how much precipitation and holding capacity we actually have in the soils. So, we would expect an average season based on the long-term forecast. But again, that will be determined also by how much lightning we get out of those systems."
Pritchard says the province's teams are ready to respond to any wildfire that pops up this spring and summer season and thanked all of the workers who help to keep Saskatchewan safe during wildfire season.
"I would like to take this moment to thank all our wildfire firefighters, operational staff for their hard work, dedication and commitment to protecting the people, property and resources of Saskatchewan. Their work is amazing, has been in the past and continues to be amazing."
People can follow along with any emerging incidents by heading to the SPSA's website.