OTTAWA - Tourists visiting the nation's capital were hunting for shade on Tuesday afternoon, leaving sun-drenched benches and chairs empty along Sparks Street as temperatures spiked to 34 degrees.
The humidity made it feel more like 42 as a heat warning enveloped a wide swath of Ontario, prompting fire bans and water restrictions in some communities.
The city of Ottawa has a burn order in effect banning open-air fires and charcoal barbecues. The National Capital Commission has done the same in Gatineau Park and Leamy Lake Park.
Much of eastern Ontario is at extreme risk of fire, according to Natural Resources Canada.
"I haven't seen it like this in a while, so we are definitely keeping our eyes peeled. We have many instances where we had to intervene over active fires," said Jacob Forget, manager of conservation services at the NCC.
Forget said the commission discovered an off-trail root fire in Gatineau Park last week and was able to extinguish it before it spread. He said the commission is reminding park users of the importance of staying on the trails.
He said the National Capital Commission may consider more stringent restrictions on activity in the parks around Ottawa if "people aren't getting the message."
The NCC is working to proactively inform people about the fire ban. Forget said the main concern is stopping park users from starting small campfires — especially in areas where they're not allowed even without the fire ban — or from using charcoal barbecues. Propane and gas barbecues are still permitted.
A number of Ontario municipalities have also banned open-air burning, including Pickering, Newmarket-Aurora, St. Catharines and Kingston.
Agriculture Canada says precipitation was lower than normal in most of the province in July, and some parts of eastern Ontario got as little as 40 per cent of their usual rainfall last month.
Water levels in rivers and streams are dropping, prompting a number of water conservation warnings.
Starting Monday, people in the Mississippi River watershed who are not on Ottawa's water system were asked to reduce their consumption by 10 per cent. People are being asked to use rain barrels to water their gardens and to avoid cleaning outdoors with pressure washers.
Officials have asked people in the Carp River watershed and the South Nation River watershed to reduce water consumption by 20 per cent.
“A significant rainfall over a large portion of the watershed will be required to return the watershed to normal conditions,†the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority said in a statement posted online.
Agriculture Canada reported that 71 per cent of the country was abnormally dry or in a moderate-to-extreme drought by the end of July. Parts of the northern Prairies are experiencing extreme drought conditions.
Those conditions are ripe for wildfires. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported more than 74,000 square kilometres had burned across the country as of Tuesday in what is already the second-worst wildfire season on record.
Areas of northern Manitoba got less than a quarter of the usual rainfall in the month of July. That province has seen 413 fires so far in 2025, which have burned more than 17,000 square kilometres.
There were 720 active blazes across Canada as of Tuesday, including a dozen new fires.
Some rainfall was forecast for eastern Ontario mid-week but precipitation levels were expected to remain low for the rest of the week. Nighttime temperatures in the region were set to fall to 12 degrees Thursday night, and Natural Resources Canada's fire danger forecast suggests the risk will fall to moderate to low for much of the capital region by then.
Biweekly fireworks shows are still underway in the capital. Les Grands Feux du Casino-Lac-Leamy is still scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday evening, with the pyrotechnics being launched from a barge in the middle of the Ottawa River.
This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published Aug. 12, 2025.
