The Bald Mountain Wildfire in the Grande Prairie area in Alberta in May 2023. Much of B.C. and Alberta is already experiencing higher-than-usual wildfire risk.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Government of Alberta Fire Service
High-risk, high-uncertainty events like earthquakes tend to fall out of view when we are occupied with more predictable seasonal events like wildfires, which have very visible effects on our lives.
Until now, a limitation of records of past fires is that these have come from sediments laid down in lakes and bogs. Records for dryland regions have been lacking, but dune deposits can fill the gap.
Satellite image of a forest fire in July 2021 in northern Saskatchewan (Wapawekka Hills). The image covers an area of about 56 kilometres in width and is based on Copernicus Sentinel data.
(Pierre Markuse), CC BY 2.0
Victor Danneyrolles, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC); Raphaël Chavardès, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), and Yves Bergeron, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)
North America’s boreal forests have been burning a lot, probably more and more over the past 60 years. Yet the long-term trend indicates that they are burning less than they were 150 years ago.
Extreme weather is a threat to the UK’s electricity system – and climate change is likely to make it even worse.
Smouldering fire in a drained peatland near Fort McMurray, Alta. produces smoke from underground. These ecosystems are affected by rising temperatures, drought, wildfire and various human actions including drainage.
(Leyland Cecco)
Over 50 fire ecologists across the Western U.S. took an unprecedented look at how forests in thousands of locations are recovering from fire in a changing climate. The results were alarming.
Smoke from huge wildfires in Siberia is visible from space.
Trzmiel / shutterstock
A monster hurricane, destructive storms and a drought that disrupted businesses across the economy led the list of the year’s costliest disasters.
Heavy rainfall from an atmospheric river triggered mudslides in the Los Angeles area on Jan. 9, 2023.
Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG via Getty Images
Noxious smells and blowing ash initially made the homes unlivable. But even after their homes were cleaned, some residents still reported health effects months later.
Rain and fast snowmelt sent the Yellowstone River and nearby streams raging beyond their banks in June 2022.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Millions of people around the world suffered through deadly flooding and long-lasting heat waves in 2022. A climate scientist explains the rising risks.
Donkeys allow herders to travel further in the rocky terrain of southern Tunisia.
Linda Pappagallo/Pastres
Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University
Wildfire Specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension; Adjunct Professor Bren School of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara