Canadian Fires- will this affect my August trip?

[Dale D]

I am mildly panicking about my long planned trip to Calgary/Banff/Louise/Icefields Pkwy/Jasper/Yoho/Mt. Robson in first 2 weeks of August. I cannot seem to get a handle on if this is extending to the Calgary and western areas, which would definitely affect my photography. I know we have a lot of Mavic Pilot members in Alberta.

Dale

 

[AlanL]

Best way to track the smoke is to use the Purple Air web site. August is still a long ways out to predict this.

 

[Dale D]

Best way to track the smoke is to use the Purple Air web site. August is still a long ways out to predict this.

It's not about smoke.

I am asking about forest destruction resulting from fires in the areas and parks I plan to visit. Are there fires there now?

Dale

 

[AlanL]

It's not about smoke.

I am asking about forest destruction resulting from fires in the areas and parks I plan to visit. Are there fires there now?

Dale

Not yet but this morning's paper had an outlook from the fire folks saying that this summer is ripe for some serious ones given how much rain we had in the spring and how warm and dry it is right now.

 

[lookout]

Smoke is reaching 13 states including New York, and New Jersey. Not sure how long this is going to go on.

 

[Chrislaf]

Dale, current reporting is suggesting that this summer is going to be a bad one across Canada for forest fires due to the dry conditions and there are health advisories in effect in many places in Canada due to the smoke from the fires that are burning. Even where I live just about an hour and a half drive north of Toronto there is a haze from the smoke from fires in Quebec and other parts of Ontario.

When I was in Banff area in 2017 during the latter part of the trip there were forest fires in the area and it did affect some of the photography I did both daytime and nighttime shots as there was a constant haze. I have a shot of the Milky Way from Two Jack Lake near Banff that was partially obscured from the wildfire nearby in the area. I can remember seeing the ash from the fire in the air. The positive part was the glow from the fire was visible in the background of the shot creating a unique photo that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

As Alan said, August is a long way off and conditions can change.

Here is a site that may be helpful that you may want to check closer to your trip.

Fire Weather Maps from Natural Resources Canada.

Chris

 

[Dale D]

Smoke is reaching 13 states including New York, and New Jersey. Not sure how long this is going to go on.

It is so hard to imagine- here in South Florida it is our rainy season- I feel like it is the monsoons here. Every day, sunny in the morning, then the sky darkens and clouds over and everything turns dark, and then, rain, rain, rain. My roof leak cannot be fixed by the roofers until the rains stop! One good rain up there will cleans the air. So I just empty the bucket. Not good drone weather except for Cole.

Dale
Miami

 

[Dale D]

It is so hard to imagine- here in South Florida it is our rainy season- I feel like it is the monsoons here. Every day, sunny in the morning, then the sky darkens and clouds over and everything turns dark, and then, rain, rain, rain. My roof leak cannot be fixed by the roofers until the rains stop! One good rain up there will cleans the air. So I just empty the bucket. Not good drone weather except for Cole.

Dale
Miami

Thanks Chris. I can always depend on you.

Can you reveal your dark sites for Milky Way and astro shots? I am looking for dark sites especially around the new moon Aug 15-16-17. Hopefully, with parking access to my car as a road pull off, and a lake would be nice. No ambient light allowed. See my calendar attached.

Dale

 

[AlanL]

It is so hard to imagine- here in South Florida it is our rainy season- I feel like it is the monsoons here. Every day, sunny in the morning, then the sky darkens and clouds over and everything turns dark, and then, rain, rain, rain. My roof leak cannot be fixed by the roofers until the rains stop! One good rain up there will cleans the air. So I just empty the bucket. Not good drone weather except for Cole.

Dale
Miami

This is our dry season up here in the NW and we won't see much rain at all until fall.

This time of year tracking the smoke is critical for photography. When it gets thick there's no reason to pull your camera out of the bag unless it's to shoot orange filtered sunrises and sunsets.

 

[rwilliam99]

It's not about smoke.


Not yet but this morning's paper had an outlook from the fire folks saying that this summer is ripe for some serious ones given how much rain we had in the spring and how warm and dry it is right now.

Unless we get some significant rain this summer, things can only get worse I think. On a large fire, the only thing that eventually puts it out is the winter rains/snow. A year after one of our big fires, there was actually a small flareup - there was some pocket that was still smoldering over the winter and almost a year after the fires started, it flared up with some smoke - it didn't amount to much but it shows how long fires can smolder undetected.

 

[Chrislaf]

Dale, when I travelled to the Rockies in 2017, it was with my family (4 of us) with our travel trailer in tow and we camped at Banff National Park and later at the overflow campground at Jasper National Park. I did not plan in advance where I would be shooting landscapes or nighttime shots but did do some basic research once there and some basic scouting. Since it was a family vacation, whether or not I went out depended on whether the skies were clear, and whether or not I was too tired from the days activities with the family (biking, visiting the sites, etc.).

Here are some of the sites I shot at:

Banff National Park and Area
• Bow River - nighttime shots
•Lake Louise - daytime and nighttime (will be light pollution from hotel) and tourists
•Moraine Lake -nighttime shots (spectacular scenery but light pollution from the lodge)
•Lake Minnewanke/Two Jack Lake - daytime and nighttime shots. There is a small picnic area I believe on Two Jack Lake that you can drive to. At night there was no one there and there was no light pollution.

The Drive along the Icefield Parkway
•this drive is spectacular and there are many pullouts to stop at along the way. I took many daytime shots here but no nighttime shots as it was too far to drive from our campsite at Banff National Park. There is no camping along the route except at designated campgrounds. If you have a drivable RV that you can pull over at a pull-off and wait until dark you would likely get spectacular nighttime shots in many places along the route.
•Hotel at Icefield Parkway - We stayed a night here on our way to Jasper and was planning on doing some star shots over the Athabasca glacier but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it was cloudy that evening.

Jasper National Park
•Medicine Lake - I took some daytimes shots here, and wish I could have taken some nighttime shots as it is a beautiful area with no apparent light pollution. The only thing is it is off the highway with nothing else around so at night if you are not with someone it might not be a location to be by yourself at in case of an emergency. I should note I always felt safe in Banff/Jasper.
•Maligne Lake -I only did daytime shots here as well but I wanted to go to this site at night. It is a tourist area so there will be some light pollution from the boat house and the tour office building.
•Jasper overflow campground - camped here on our way back home. It's basically a field snuggled in the mountains. Did some nighttime shots here as the clouds rolled in.

Kootenay/Yoho National Parks
•there is also spectacular scenery in both Kootenay and Yoho National Parks. We did day trips from our campground in Banff into these parks but I did not have the chance to do any nighttime photography here although there are many places one could to get amazing shots if you have the time.

Hope this helps. One thing I would recommend is that you have a bear bell on your pack/equipment and if possible you go out with a partner at night especially in the secluded areas. I often went out with my son who is also interested in astrophotography.

Chris

 

[Dronecation]

If you can, avoid coming this year. This looks like it is going to be an awful year for fires and smoke.

 

[JavaJack]

I am mildly panicking about my long planned trip to Calgary/Banff/Louise/Icefields Pkwy/Jasper/Yoho/Mt. Robson in first 2 weeks of August. I cannot seem to get a handle on if this is extending to the Calgary and western areas, which would definitely affect my photography. I know we have a lot of Mavic Pilot members in Alberta.

Dale

 

[JavaJack]

Hey, Dale, here to help you out. You can forecast the smoke just like weather about 3 days out quite accurately, because the smoke is affected by weather patterns it’s similar to forecasting weather. Recently I had a paid aerial project here in Canada and the smoke was extremely thick. I was able to forecast a perfect day when the wind direction changed and the smoke blew away from the area. When I arrived at my location several hundreds of miles away, it was clear for my shoot day. Go to this link for fire forecasting and bookmark it. It’s a very useful tool. If you need any help using it, let me know, but the interface is very easy to use. Smoke Forecast - FireSmoke.ca. The very palest yellow, the smoke is barely visible in the distance, just to give you a handle on the smoke scale or legend. I’ve shot in the lightest yellow and you can barely notice anything.

 

[Dale D]

Dale, when I travelled to the Rockies in 2017, it was with my family (4 of us) with our travel trailer in tow and we camped at Banff National Park and later at the overflow campground at Jasper National Park. I did not plan in advance where I would be shooting landscapes or nighttime shots but did do some basic research once there and some basic scouting. Since it was a family vacation, whether or not I went out depended on whether the skies were clear, and whether or not I was too tired from the days activities with the family (biking, visiting the sites, etc.).

Here are some of the sites I shot at:

Banff National Park and Area
• Bow River - nighttime shots
•Lake Louise - daytime and nighttime (will be light pollution from hotel) and tourists
•Moraine Lake -nighttime shots (spectacular scenery but light pollution from the lodge)
•Lake Minnewanke/Two Jack Lake - daytime and nighttime shots. There is a small picnic area I believe on Two Jack Lake that you can drive to. At night there was no one there and there was no light pollution.

The Drive along the Icefield Parkway
•this drive is spectacular and there are many pullouts to stop at along the way. I took many daytime shots here but no nighttime shots as it was too far to drive from our campsite at Banff National Park. There is no camping along the route except at designated campgrounds. If you have a drivable RV that you can pull over at a pull-off and wait until dark you would likely get spectacular nighttime shots in many places along the route.
•Hotel at Icefield Parkway - We stayed a night here on our way to Jasper and was planning on doing some star shots over the Athabasca glacier but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it was cloudy that evening.

Jasper National Park
•Medicine Lake - I took some daytimes shots here, and wish I could have taken some nighttime shots as it is a beautiful area with no apparent light pollution. The only thing is it is off the highway with nothing else around so at night if you are not with someone it might not be a location to be by yourself at in case of an emergency. I should note I always felt safe in Banff/Jasper.
•Maligne Lake -I only did daytime shots here as well but I wanted to go to this site at night. It is a tourist area so there will be some light pollution from the boat house and the tour office building.
•Jasper overflow campground - camped here on our way back home. It's basically a field snuggled in the mountains. Did some nighttime shots here as the clouds rolled in.

Kootenay/Yoho National Parks
•there is also spectacular scenery in both Kootenay and Yoho National Parks. We did day trips from our campground in Banff into these parks but I did not have the chance to do any nighttime photography here although there are many places one could to get amazing shots if you have the time.

Hope this helps. One thing I would recommend is that you have a bear bell on your pack/equipment and if possible you go out with a partner at night especially in the secluded areas. I often went out with my son who is also interested in astrophotography.

Chris

Many thanks Chris. I am printing your reply for my camera bag. Great comments and greatly appreciated.

Dale

 

[Dale D]

Hey, Dale, here to help you out. You can forecast the smoke just like weather about 3 days out quite accurately, because the smoke is affected by weather patterns it’s similar to forecasting weather. Recently I had a paid aerial project here in Canada and the smoke was extremely thick. I was able to forecast a perfect day when the wind direction changed and the smoke blew away from the area. When I arrived at my location several hundreds of miles away, it was clear for my shoot day. Go to this link for fire forecasting and bookmark it. It’s a very useful tool. If you need any help using it, let me know, but the interface is very easy to use. Smoke Forecast - FireSmoke.ca. The very palest yellow, the smoke is barely visible in the distance, just to give you a handle on the smoke scale or legend. I’ve shot in the lightest yellow and you can barely notice anything.

Greatly thankful for your information. I will keep it on my phone for future reference when I get there.

Dale

 

[Galopin]

Smoke is reaching 13 states including New York, and New Jersey. Not sure how long this is going to go on.

This smoke comes from Quebec in the eastern part of Canada.

 

[Dronecation]

I am mildly panicking about my long planned trip to Calgary/Banff/Louise/Icefields Pkwy/Jasper/Yoho/Mt. Robson in first 2 weeks of August. I cannot seem to get a handle on if this is extending to the Calgary and western areas, which would definitely affect my photography. I know we have a lot of Mavic Pilot members in Alberta.

Dale

Have a gander- Like I said before, avoid coming here Dale.

'Canada dry': Climatologist Dave Phillips foresees hot, dry summer countrywide

The hot, dry conditions that are fuelling wildfires countrywide are just the beginning of what summer could look like in Canada this year, according to Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[apeel]

Hi Dale,
This is probably off topic and a red herring and I expect you would have done your homework about who can fly drones in Canada. But I thought I read somewhere / sometime ago that you must be a Canadian citizen to fly a drone in Canada for recreation purposes. Is that true or did I dream that?
Allan

 

[Fun Flyer]

Here’s a link to get an idea of drone laws in Canada. apeel, it appears you are correct about foreign visitors to Canada requiring an SFOC in order to fly their drones. Drone Laws in Canada [Updated April 11, 2023]