Wildfires are the biggest emerging threat to our communities and ecosystems in North America and around the world. Wildfire seasons are burning longer and hotter, affecting more and more people while interface fires are becoming common and more homes are located in remote areas. It’s a new reality and the situation is going to get a lot worse as large fires will continue to rip landscapes apart.

Are wildland firefighters ready and equipped to handle new monster fires?

Climate change and wildland fires: Facts and figures

1.9 degrees Fahrenheit: The rise in global temperature since 1980

Source: https://climate.nasa.gov  Accessed May 29, 2019.

18 of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001

Source: https://climate.nasa.gov  Accessed May 29, 2019.

“Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Source: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence  Accessed May 29, 2019.

“The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires (and) longer periods of drought in some regions.”

Source: https://climate.nasa.gov/effect  Accessed May 29, 2019.

“On average, more than 100,000 wildfires … clear 4 million to 5 million acres (1.6 million to 2 million hectares) of land in the U.S. every year.”

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic. com/environment/natural-disasters/ wildfires  Accessed May 29, 2019.

“Based on data in the Canadian National Forestry Database, over 8,000 fires occur each year, and burn an average of over 2.1 million hectares in Canada.”

Source: http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/ha/ nfdb?type=poly&year=2017  Accessed May 31, 2019.