Rain helps firefighters' efforts in Quebec, but not enough of it to extinguish flames

The rain that has been falling in northern Quebec since Monday likely won't be enough to extinguish the wildfires threatening several communities, but the wet weather could give firefighters a chance to get ahead of the flames, officials say.

Quebec's forest fire prevention agency — SOPFEU — was evaluating on Tuesday the effects of recent rainfall, Katia Petit, associate deputy minister for civil protection, told reporters.

"If enough rain falls, it will allow SOPFEU personnel to intensify their work directly in the field, to work on the fires and prevent them from starting up again once the dry weather returns," Petit said.

Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault said he expected rain to stop falling by Wednesday morning in the regions most affected by forest fires. He said warm, sunny weather could return thereafter with a chance of only isolated showers through the weekend.

More rain could come in the first week of July, but nothing like the "organized system" of showers that had been forecasted for this week, Legault said.

Despite the rain, the task of controlling the province's fires remains "colossal," said Julie Coupal, SOPFEU assistant director. The agency counted more than 100 wildfires across the province Tuesday, including 77 in the southern half, where more than two dozen fires were considered out of control.

Ongoing evacuation orders had displaced around 4,400 people as of Tuesday morning, including the residents of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Mistissini and Waswanipi, as well as parts of the communities of Obedjiwan, Oujé-Bougoumou, Senneterre and Val-d'Or.

Elsewhere in Canada, wildfires have forced evacuations and road closures. In B.C., officials partially reopened Highway 99 near Vancouver after a fire in the hills north of the city led them to block access to the freeway on Monday. In Manitoba, residents of Leaf Rapids began evacuating Monday after the town in the north of the province declared a state of emergency due to an encroaching fire.

In the United States, smoke from Canadian fires have led to air quality alerts in Michigan and Minnesota. Officials in Chicago advised vulnerable residents to stay indoors to avoid adverse health effects.

Meanwhile, NASA has reported that smoke from wildfires in northern Quebec had reached Europe. The American space agency said satellite imagery from Monday showed smoke extending across the North Atlantic Ocean to the Iberian Peninsula, France and other parts of western Europe.

Air quality in Europe has not deteriorated to the extent seen in Canada, however, because of the height of the smoke in the atmosphere, NASA explained.

Smoky air led Environment Canada to issue smog warnings in much of southern Quebec over the weekend, and parts of the province's westernmost region were still subject on Tuesday to an air quality alert.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2023.

— With files from The Associated Press. 

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.