The frequency & magnitude of extreme #wildfires has DOUBLED in the last 20 yrs due to #ClimateChange, acc/to a study released Mon.
The analysis focused on massive blazes that release vast amts of energy from the organic matter burned. Researchers pointed to the #Australia#fires of 2019 & 2020 as blazes that were “unprecedented in their scale & intensity.”
“We’ve had this paradox where the amt of burning on #Earth is declining …& yet we are having #fires that are more extreme, more damaging,” said Stephen Pyne, fire historian & prof at Arizona State.…
Cunningham & team analyzed data from orbiting #NASA satellites, which collected 4 fire measurements per day over 21yrs. The results astounded him.
“I was expecting to see increases, but the rate of the increases surprised & alarmed me because we’re looking at quite a short period of time,” he said.
Israeli media reports that 32 fire units have been working to extinguish the flames in northern #Israel, but are hampered by poor weather and the sheer size of the #fires.
"Until last week western #Canada had been enduring a cold spring but the rapid onset of #unseasonably high temperatures, in places 10-15C above the average for early May, is causing #fires and #flooding."
Wonder what it takes for #Alberta and Albertans to connect the dots.
"Deaths of two #firefighters days apart prompts reckoning over mounting economic and human toll of #fires that have charred #Canada’s forests"
10 M hectares burned (previous record: 7.6 M hectares, in 1989).
900 #wildfires burning
70 M people in wildfire #smoke
120,000 people #evacuated
OIl and gas production in #Alberta disrupted #Timber stands burned
"The #fires in [#Kelowna] moved so rapidly on Friday that the number of people under evacuation order went from 4,500 to 15,000 in an hour, while another 20,000 were under evacuation alert. The province currently accounts for over a third of #Canada's 1,062 active fires."