WATCH: Fire crews are battling about 70 wildfires across BC, while smog is proving to be the problem in Metro Vancouver. Tanya Beja reports.
TORONTO – Campfire aficionados, beware: Western Canada faces an extremely high forest fire threat over the weekend.
As is typical every summer, some of the main areas of threat are the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.
The fire danger is extreme in the Northwest Territories and central British Columbia this weekend.
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In Alberta, the danger ranges from high to moderate. To date there have been 803 wildfires in the province.
In Yellowknife – where more than 169 fires have already burned – Environment Canada has issued a special air quality statement as wildfires around Great Slave Lake are “emitting copious amounts of smoke into the atmosphere.”
Some relief is in sight as winds are expected to shift smoke away from Yellowknife beginning Saturday morning.
This weekend the greatest threat is to the northwestern part of the Northwest Territories, western Yukon and most of British Columbia.
READ MORE: How Canada is leading the way in forest fire management
Environment Canada issued a wildfire smoke warning Friday morning for Prince George, B.C. as fires continued to rage in the region. There are have been 448 fires to date in the entire province.
Weather conditions won’t help, either: Temperatures are forecast to be in the 30s with no sign of rain in the near future.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there are more than 2,400 fires burning throughout the co untry, accounting for 1,066,022 hectares of forest.
But this is down from the same time last year, when 3,300 fires were raging across the country.
For an interactive map of the fires in your area, click here.
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