Strong winds, warm temperatures lead to significant growth in northern Alberta wildfires [Video]

Despite a cold front that rolled across much of Alberta on Thursday evening, firefighters continue to face some challenging conditions as they struggle to battle the many wildfires that are ravaging the province.

Alberta Wildfire Information Officer, Derek Forsythe, said the return of sunny weather and strong wind gusts for Friday in some areas created the possibility of “crossover conditions.’”

That means surface temperatures are higher than the relative humidity, causing fire fuels to dry out more quickly and burn at a more rapid rate.

“We are seeing some cooler temperatures, which is helpful to us, but we are still seeing temperatures in the the 20 to 25 degree range and humidity is 15 to 25 per cent,”  ,” said Alberta Wildfire Information Officer, Derrick Forsythe.

“We did see significant growth (over the last 24 hours), which means the bigger a fire gets, the longer it’s gonna take for us …