Data capturing hot spots and burned acres show Canada wildfire season off to wild start
While images of wildfires capture their ferocity, data can provide insight into how bad a fire season is.
Such is the case with two graphics, powered by satellite data, that showcase a Canadian wildfire season off to a wild — and scary — start.
Twice a day a NASA satellite sends images to the ground, giving a real-time view of where fires are burning. This is especially useful for remote areas where no sensors are stationed.
As of Tuesday that satellite had picked up four times as many fire hot spots across Canada than is typical for early June. That's more than any year since the satellite began transmitting in 2012, except 2023, according to data from Global Forest Watch.
Though the satellite has recorded thousands of hot spots so far this year, that does not mean there are actually that many active fires. Each hot spot could be detected repeatedly over the course of days. And because each detection is about the size of 26 football fields, it can represent part of a much larger blaze, said James MacCarthy, wildfire research manager at Global Forest Watch.
Based on data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, about 200 fires are actively burning in Canada and have consumed about 7,700 square miles (19,900 square kilometers) of terrain, most of it in the last week.
Only 2023 saw such high numbers so early in Canada's fire season, which runs from April through October. That year wildfires burned a record 67,000 square miles — more than twice the surface area of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes.
Taken together, the hot spots and acres burned mean 2025 is the second-worst start to the season in years.
'A warm and dry finish to May and early June has created a significant fire season,' said Liam Buchart, a fire weather specialist with the Canadian Forest Service.
The weather conditions are made more likely by climate change and encourage wildfires to start. That means even though 90% of wildfires in Manitoba this year have been human-caused, according to the provincial government, climate change helps enable their spread.
'Climate change is creating the conditions that make it more likely that human-caused fires are going to spread, or even start,' MacCarthy said. 'It might be a human starting it, but it's going to spread quickly because now there's hot and dry conditions that are occurring more frequently and more intensely than they have in the past.'
The hot and dry weather is likely to to continue for at least the next week across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, according to Natural Resources Canada. The agency's forecasts also call for 'a warmer and drier than normal July and August for large portions of Canada,' Buchart said.
'The remainder of the fire season looks to remain above normal, especially over the northern prairie provinces and southern British Columbia,' he said.
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The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Chicago Tribune
39 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Smoky air from Canadian wildfires envelops Chicago for 3rd day. What does this mean for summer?
Tiny, airborne smoke particles blowing in from Canadian wildfires resisted dispersal from a steady, light rain across the Chicago area Wednesday, concentrating even more Thursday to reach levels unhealthy for the general public. The smoke pushed northeast Illinois into its third day in a row of bad air quality Friday and the state into its first two air pollution action days of the year. Chicago's air quality was ranked the worst in the United States on Thursday, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAir. At one point during the day, The Washington Post reported, the city had the second-worst air quality among the world's major cities. 'Whatever pollutants were in the air (Wednesday), because of the rain, got suppressed and deposited on the ground. But the wildfires are still happening in the north,' said Ashish Sharma, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, whose research focuses on climate and air quality modeling. 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Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
Americans Told To Stay Indoors In 6 States
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UPI
11 hours ago
- UPI
Hazy sky to persist as Canadian wildfire smoke and Saharan dust invade U.S.
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That smoke has now mostly retreated or dissipated from the lower 48 states. "Pockets of smoke and haze are expected to hover over portions of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes through this weekend," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham. "However, the density and overall aerial coverage of the smoke will continue to decrease." Multiple storms moving across the Midwest and East -- in association with clouds, rain and changes in the wind direction -- have led, and will continue to lead, to the dissipation of smoke in many areas. However, this break from the smoky conditions will be fleeting. "Between Sunday and Monday, a cold front diving out of Canada is expected to bring a resurgence of smoky skies," said Buckingham. "This will likely target many of the same areas that experienced smoky skies this past week, especially across the northern Plains and Midwest." Where the smoke is thickest in the Midwest, the air quality can suffer, resulting in hazardous conditions, especially for susceptible populations such as the elderly and those with respiratory ailments. By the time the smoke moves east later next week, that concern will lessen. "Hazy skies from upper-atmosphere smoke can potentially spread across the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Northeast by the middle and end of next week," added Buckingham. The smoky start to the warm months has many recalling the thick smoke that invaded Midwestern and Northeastern cities in 2023, which ended up being Canada's most destructive wildfire season. Saharan dust to put a lid on tropical activity in the Atlantic While wildfire smoke will continue to intrude from the north this summer, rounds of dust blowing off Africa will impact the South. A current round through late this week can be replaced by another next week, say AccuWeather experts. "Besides the dust that is already over the Southeast and moving across the Atlantic, another large round of dust is moving off Africa now," said AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Forecaster Alex DaSilva on Thursday morning. "It is expected to reach the Lesser Antilles beginning late this weekend, and perhaps Florida by the end of next week." In the meantime, a hazy sky and vibrant sunrises and sunsets can be expected all along the Gulf Coast, and also portions of the southwest Atlantic coast, through Friday. The dimming of the sunshine can also have a slight cooling effect, resulting in daytime high temperatures that are a few degrees lower than they otherwise would have been with full sun. Unlike with thick wildfire smoke plumes, the Saharan dust will remain mostly in the upper atmosphere, because of the great distance of thousands of miles it must travel to reach the U.S. Because of that, poor air quality is not anticipated in either the Caribbean or Southeast, though some of the dust can mix with rain from thunderstorms, leaving what appears to be dirty spots on cars and other objects. The dust can have an effect of quelling potential tropical development, however. "This dust will likely prevent anything from forming across most of the Atlantic tropical basin over the next few weeks," pointed out DaSilva. "The only areas that can see a risk of development will be across the western Caribbean or in the Gulf." AccuWeather meteorologists are currently highlighting a low risk for tropical development in that area through mid-June. The hurricane season as a whole, which runs through Nov. 30, is expected to be an active one, especially after Saharan dust subsides.
