Extreme weather fuelled flames coast to coast, largest study of 2023 wildfires finds
CTV
The largest study of Canada's catastrophic 2023 wildfire season concludes it is 'inescapable' that the record burn was caused by extreme heat and parching drought, while adding the amount of young forests consumed could make recovery harder.
The largest study of Canada's catastrophic 2023 wildfire season concludes it is "inescapable" that the record burn was caused by extreme heat and parching drought, while adding the amount of young forests consumed could make recovery harder.
And it warns that the extreme temperatures seen that year were already equivalent to some climate projections for 2050.
"It is inescapable that extreme heat and moisture deficits enabled the record-breaking 2023 fire season," says the study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
That season burned 150,000 square kilometres -- seven times the historical average -- forced 232,000 Canadians from their homes and required help from 5,500 firefighters from around the world, as well as national resources and the military. Smoke drifted as far as western Europe.
"In 2023, we had the most extreme fire weather conditions on record over much of the country," said Piyush Jain, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada. "I think the connection is pretty clear."
The paper finds that although there were differences in how the 2023 fire season played out in Western, Northern, Eastern and Atlantic Canada, the underlying causes were the same. That season had more extreme fire weather -- defined as a combination of heat and drought that exceeds 95 per cent of all fire season days -- than any year since records began in 1940.
Temperatures across the country averaged 2.2 degrees above normal during the fire season.
