This is a little too close to home.

We've have unusually strong, steady winds combined with very dry surface conditions over the last week.

The same winds, gusting up to 100 kph, pushed a wildfire into the town of Slave Lake, a small community of about 7,000, about 3 hours' drive north of me. A hasty mandatory evacuation ensued and about a third of the town burned to the ground.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Thousands+flee+Slave+Lake/4790689/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...#articlecontent

On a personal note, the same winds totally trashed my antique windmill, which has been standing since the 1930s. I need to figure out how to put a line on the thing, which is now a widowmaker, three stories up and hanging by a thread.

But first, I'm going out to re-mow and widen a few firebreaks in case some idiot tosses a cigarette butt into the ditch.