You can smell hints of summer in the air and the promise of sunny, worry-free times.

A worrisome thing is present, however, but for now it’s something requiring our close attention so we won’t have to start worrying.

We are into the fire season and there are indications it could be a bad one.

Haliburton fire chiefs, citing an extreme fire risk, issued a total fire ban for Haliburton County last week. All burn permits are cancelled.

The ban covers any open flame that cannot be turned off by a valve or switch. That includes fireworks and charcoal barbecues. 

Fire seasons and fire bans are nothing new. There are indications, however, that devastating wildfires are more frequent and becoming a serious worldwide concern. Folks in Alberta and parts of B.C. and Saskatchewan can attest to that this spring.

Already this spring there have been more than 1,400 wildfires in Canada. That’s well above the 10-year annual average of 1,061 fires for this time of year. 

A United Nations report concluded recently that the risk of deadly blazes will surge in coming years as the result of climate change. Produced by more than 50 researchers on six continents, the report estimates the global risk of devastating fires will increase by more than 50 per cent over the coming decades.

“The heating of the planet is turning landscapes into tinderboxes,” said the report, which forecast that we are heading for a “global wildfire crisis.”

The good news is that people are becoming more aware and concerned about the increasing threats of wildfires. A recent survey of 1,500 Canadians found that 46 per cent worry about damage caused by wildfires.

Increased awareness will help make us all think more deeply about what we can do individually to help prevent fires.

The National Forestry Database indicates that 8,000 wildfires occur every year in Canada, roughly one-half of them caused by lightning.  There is little we can do to prevent that but we can do much to prevent the 50 per cent caused by humans.

Most of us know better than to leave a fire unattended. However, how diligent are we in extinguishing fires we have set for cooking, warmth or burning debris? Do we take the time to drown fires, then stir the ashes to ensure they are cold?

Also, how many of us think about the possibility of our vehicles starting a wildfire? Catalytic converter surfaces under a vehicle can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit under certain conditions, so driving or parking over dry grass should be avoided.

ATV exhaust systems also get hot enough to ignite tinder dry grass, leaves and brush.  Grass can build up around the exhaust pipe and engine. It may heat up, fall to the ground and ignite a fire.

ATVs have a small mesh screen inside the muffler to stop sparks from shooting out onto the ground. Some people remove these spark arresters to gain more horsepower, and that definitely is not a good idea.

It is a good idea to carry a fire extinguisher in your vehicle, whether it be car, truck or ATV.

We all need to be more diligent about brush, especially after a winter of ice storms that left us with an unusual amount of downed trees and fallen branches. Dry brush is miracle food for wildfires and we need to be diligent about clearing it away.

Governments and service companies like Ontario Hydro and Bell need to be more rigorous in ensuring dry brush is cleared away. I get nervous driving along Highway 35 and seeing piles of cut brush left to dry under power lines. 

Our world is becoming warmer, drier and windier – all factors that increase wildfire risks. When risks increase so must thinking and planning on how to reduce them.

One of the most important ways of reducing wildfire risks is to strictly observe fire bans. People who think their small, attended campfire is not a risk are not thinking clearly.

We live surrounded by trees and other vegetation that becomes explosive when dried by sun, wind and lack of rain. There is no such thing as being too cautious when wildfire risks start mounting like they are now.

I have never been a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Probably because I was born and raised in Northwestern Ontario, where most folks disliked southern Ontario and anything to do with it. 

Toronto was the centre of power and privilege, sucking up our resources while giving us little in return. The Leafs were southern Ontario’s hockey team, so most of us Northern Ontario kids ignored them while cheering and dreaming of playing for the Montreal Canadiens. 

Our hockey heroes were the masterful goaltender Jacques Plante, the left-wing legend Jean Beliveau and, of course, Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard, the greatest hockey player of all time. 

We loved the Canadiens because they played the game with pure passion. 

Many of the players, notably The Rocket, came from struggling, impoverished families. The Rocket and others of his era learned to skate, play and practice not in fancy arenas, but on frozen creeks just like we did.

I thought a lot about those great Canadiens teams while watching the hapless Maple Leafs blow another chance to win the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup. They haven’t won the cup since 1967, a full 56 years ago.

The Leafs’ barely got past Tampa Bay Lighting in Round One of the playoffs. Their four-games-to-one loss to Florida Panthers in Round Two was pathetic, especially the uninspiring play of their “Core Four” players – John Tavares, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner.

Those four – paid a total of US $40.5 million this season – failed to score once in the first three games against the Panthers. The amount of passion they played with could be placed in an eyedropper. 

Passionate play drove Montreal’s Rocket Richard to become the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season and the first to reach 500 career goals. He was a member of eight Stanley Cup winning Canadiens teams.

Richard played hard and rough. He was known as fire on ice for his lightning drives at the opposition net. 

“When Rocket came flying towards me with the puck on his stick, his eyes were all lit up, flashing and gleaming like a pinball machine,” Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall once recalled. “It was terrifying.”  

The Rocket and the Montreal Canadiens exemplified what the game of hockey is all about – the passion for scoring goals. Goals get scored when teams play with passion that lights fire in their eyes and their bellies.

It’s been a very long time, but Toronto once had teams that played with fiery spirit. They made 71 NHL playoff appearances, winning 13 Stanley Cups between 1918 and 1967

This year they had an excellent regular season record and fans expected to see them in this year’s final – something they have not seen in decades. If the team had shown the same passion as the fans, they might have been there.

When a team that should go deep into the playoffs and doesn’t, its problem is not just on the ice. There is something missing on the bench and in the executive offices.

The Leafs management was missing the ability to infect their players with the passion that wins championships. Management also seemed to lack confidence in itself, making continual lineup changes despite having one of the best regular season records in the NHL.

The Maple Leafs appeared to have had everything needed to be in the Stanley Cup final this year. Everything except passion and team spirit. They’ll have to find those two things if they want to go anywhere next season.

How and where will they find it? A good start would be to look down the street and take a few hints from that other Toronto team – baseball’s Blue Jays.

The Jays played some games on the same days the Leafs were suffering one playoff loss after the next. I did a lot of channel hopping to follow both teams. 

On the Leafs channel I saw a lot of glum faces and dispassionate play. Turning to the Jays I saw impassioned, happy faces on guys enjoying playing the game. Smiles and laughter that build the team spirit that scores points and wins games and championships.

 So here comes the heat. And, the heavy rains, big thunderstorms and the wild winds that accompany them.

That’s what the professional forecasters are telling us. Their climate models suggest that the world average temperature could reach a record high this year. 

Last year was the world’s fifth warmest year on record, they say, and this summer could see even hotter temperatures.

That might seem like good news to Ontarians who have just been through the gloomiest several months in more than 80 years. Clouded skies, rain, sleet and snow were the main weather features most days from December through April.

Now the world weather pattern is changing from La Niña to El Niño, the naturally occurring phenomena that cool or warm the central Pacific Ocean surfaces. La Niña is a cooling phase, and El Niño is a warming phase.

Both develop over the tropical Pacific Ocean region, altering weather patterns in various parts of the world. El Niño could dramatically impact Canadian weather this summer, depending on when it fully develops.

If El Niño fully matures within the next three months Canada could see a cooler-than-normal summer, some climatologists say. However, if it takes hold later we’ll see hotter temperatures and more rainfall in the back half of this year, and into 2024. 

It already has a good start. By the end of March surface waters of the tropical Pacific had reached an average 21 Celsius for the first time on record. The temperature reached 21.1C in the first five days of April, surpassing the previous record of 20.0C set in March 2016.

El Niño occurs every two to seven years. The most recent ones were in 2018-2019 and 2014-2016. That latter resulted in 2016 being recorded as the world’s hottest year on record.

“If El Niño does develop, there is a good chance 2023 will be even hotter than 2016 . . .” British climatologist Friederike Otto told the media recently.

The climate forecasters are uncertain about when El Niño will appear and therefore exactly what it will have in store for us.

One month ago the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a watch saying El Niño likely will develop over the next six months. It is expected to release an update within the next day or two.

Whatever El Niño has planned for us this year and next there is no question that our world is getter hotter. The world’s average global temperature now is 1.2C higher than in pre-industrial times.

Last year Europe experienced its hottest summer on record, while climate change-fuelled extreme rain caused disastrous flooding in Pakistan, and in February, Antarctic sea ice levels hit a record low.

According to The Farmers’ Almanac, last summer was the third warmest in Canada’s history. The summers of 2021 and 1998 were hotter. And, last year’s heat stayed around longer, giving us an unusually warm autumn and milder than usual winter.

The Farmers’ Almanac is predicting a sizzling summer with daily highs in the 30s Celsius and “feels like” temperatures of 40C when factoring in heavy humidity. It also is predicting bouts of showery weather and thunderstorms with heavy precipitation.

The average July daily high for the Haliburton region is 19.7C or 67.5 Fahrenheit. The most rain comes in June with an average of 105 millimeters, or 4.1 inches, for the month.

For those who might be wondering, there are two farmers’ almanacs. One is The Old Farmer’s Almanac established in 1792 and The Farmers’ Almanac established in 1818. Both make weather predictions a year or more in advance and both claim accuracy rates of 80-plus percent.

We’ll have to wait to see how accurate the NOAA and various almanac predictions are for the summer ahead. Whatever we get will be better than the sunlight deprived days of the last few months. Any significant amount of sun would be much appreciated.

So far, May gives us a glimmer of hope. This past week has been a sunny one with daytime temperatures in the Celsius teens and low 20s. 

The bugs certainly are enjoying it.