Canadian Fires To Date Have Consumed An Area Equal To Kentucky; Graphics Of A Record-Crushing Year

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Wildfires in Canada have burned a staggering 25 million acres so far this year, an area roughly the size of Kentucky. With more than a month of peak fire season left to go, 2023 has already eclipsed Canada’s previous annual record from 1989, when over 18 million acres were scorched. And the country’s worst wildfire season on record continues to rage.

Hot, dry conditions have fueled widespread wildfires, mostly in Canada’s boreal forests, since the spring, with some of the largest blazes burning in Northwest Canada and Quebec. The fires have forced more than 120,000 people to evacuate their homes, stretched firefighting resources thin and repeatedly darkened the skies and polluted the air for millions of people across North America.

“What is kind of extraordinary this year is that the fire season started early and in multiple areas at the same time,” said Jennifer Kamau, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

In a more typical season, Ms. Kamau said, “fires would flare up in one part of the country, then die down and then start in another area,” which allows fire crews to tackle one region at a time. But this year, she said, “demand in every province and territory is high,” nearly coast-to-coast. International fire crews from across the globe, including more than 1,800 firefighters and support staff from the United States, have been mobilized to help battle the flames since May, but the size and ferocity of the blazes has often hampered their efforts even as many of the largest, most remote fires have been left to burn. Over the past week, two Canadian firefighters were killed on duty just days apart.

EDIT

https://climatecrocks.com/2023/07/19/canadas-fires-got-real-bad-real-fast/