Warm, windy weather pushing wildfire risk higher across Alberta [Video]

It’s warming up, windy and dry across much of the province — and one doesn’t need to be a weatherperson to know what that means during spring in Alberta.

That said, experts confirm heading into the weekend, conditions are ripe for wildfires.

“When the relative humidity is lower than the ambient temperature so, for example, if the temperature was 25 C and the relative humidity was below 25 per cent, that’s when we would start seeing crossover conditions,” said Danielle Desjardins, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Crossover is the point at which the relative humidity is less than or equal to the temperature and this is an indicator of extreme burning potential, according to Alberta Wildfire, which said the Slave Lake region was experiencing such conditions on Friday.

It’s a precarious time in Alberta’s wildfireseason, when a warm and/or windy day like what presented itself on Friday could lead to fires spreading out of …