Global warming and climate change are likely to result in massive forest fires around the world, researchers say. The Fort McMurray wildfire currently blazing in Canada should serve as an example of the fires which could break out around the world, according to investigators.
Around 10 million acres of woodlands in the United States were lost to wildfires in 2015. These record-high losses were driven by massive blazes which raged through California and Alaska. Uncontrolled fires also raged through forests in other regions of the globe, including China, Mongolia and Siberia.
Early in 2016, a pair of wildfires burned on opposite ends of the world - the border between Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as Tasmania. Australia even added an additional rating to its fire warning index in 2009 - catastrophic - to reflect changing conditions.
A wide range of factors also affect the spread of forest fires in addition to warming temperatures. These include human use of the land, and how many trees are left behind by firefighters battling one blaze to serve as fuel for future burns. Warmer, dryer air also leaves trees more fire-prone, and increased instances of lightning can trigger massive blazes.
"The Alberta wildfires are an excellent example of what we're seeing more and more of: warming means snow melts earlier, soils and vegetation dries out earlier, and the fire season starts earlier. It's a train wreck," Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist from the University of Arizona, said.
The global fire season increased in length 19 percent between 1979 and 2013, resulting in a rash of large fires from the late 1990s to the start of the 21st century. However, the total amount of land lost globally to these blazes has decreased, at least in part due to improved firefighting techniques. However, in the United States, the amount of land consumed in these fires has risen dramatically. The 10-year average, which stood at 3 million acres 30 years ago, sits at 7 million acres today.
Wildfires in various regions around the globe are pushed by a variety of factors. El Nino, a regional warming of the Pacific Ocean, can result in droughts in Indonesia. There, changes in land use can also have a profound effect on the formation of fires in woodland areas.
