Canada's wildfire season is far from over
Authorities are predicting that Canadians are in for many more weeks of fire activity.
Canada's most destructive fire season, which has already scorched more than 13 million hectares of land, continues. What's more, country officials anticipate above-average fire activity will continue throughout August and September across large areas of the northern and western country.
At a briefing Friday, Michael Norton — director of the Northern Forestry Centre at Natural Resources Canada — said the reason for continued fire activity into early fall will be the same drought that caused the record wildfire season. In some regions, rain has helped reduce the number of fires, but Norton predicts wildfires will still be "very active" in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
"In September, we anticipate that the potential area at extreme risk will become a bit smaller, covering southern B.C., Prairies, part of the Northwest Territories in Western Ontario. In much of this region, the number of new fires starting will taper off as we move through September later into fall. It's important to remember, however, that large existing fires will continue burning, and new problematic fires can occur anywhere…and it is likely we will experience significant fire activity for many weeks yet," Norton told us.
As of August 10, 5,593 wildfires have burned 13.4 million hectares of land. This is an area larger than the total area of the three coastal provinces. The wildfires have also forced the evacuation of more than 167,500 people nationwide, and 4 firefighters have died doing their duty.
"As a bit of a comparison, the total perimeter length of this year's fires so far would stretch more than 90 per cent of the way around the equator," Norton shared.
Carbon emissions from the 2023 wildfires exceeded one billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, equal to the emissions of 306 million cars.
According to Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, every region of the country experienced a particularly intense wildfire season this year, with flames breaking out even in places not normally associated with heavy fire activity. For example, in Nova Scotia.
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