on average now burn about 12,000 square miles (31,000 square kilometers) yearly, about the size of Maryland. "It's not just the California problem or Australia problem. "It makes you think about climate change and also how it essentially could affect, you know, anywhere," Bhatia said. But if it continues, it will no longer be as funny. Ronak Bhatia, who moved from California to Illinois for college in 2018 and now lives in Chicago, said at first it seemed like a joke: wildfire smoke following him and his friends from the West Coast. "We have to learn to live with fire and smoke, that's the new reality," Flannigan said. Fire seasons are getting longer, starting earlier and lasting later because of warmer weather, he said. Then you add more lightning strikes from more storms, some of which are dry lightning strikes, said Canadian fire scientist Mike Flannigan at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia. Numerous studies have linked climate change to increases in North American fires because global warming is increasing extreme weather, especially drought and mostly in the West.Īs the atmosphere dries, it sucks the moisture out of plants, creating more fuel that burns easier, faster and with greater intensity.
"We're seeing, especially across the West, big increases in smoke exposure and reduction in air quality that are attributable to increase in fire activity." Park Williams, a UCLA bioclimatologist who studies fire and water. "A year like this could happen with or without climate change, but warming temperatures just made it a lot more probable," said A. Even before July, traditionally the busiest fire month for the country, Canada has set a record for most area burned with 31,432 square miles (81,409 square kilometers), which is nearly 15% higher than the old record. Several scientists told the that the problem of smoke and wildfires will progressively worsen until the world significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which has not happened despite years of international negotiations and lofty goals.įires in North America are generally getting worse, burning more land. "To some extent they're just not, they're not wild.
"We can't really call them wildfires anymore," Francis said.
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