Large wildfires can create decade-long heat island in the wild [Video]

Long after the flames have gone out, the effects of large, climate-fuelled wildfires endure in Canada’s boreal forest, making the ground warmer than normal more than a decade later, a study shows.

The new research, published today in the journal Nature, looked at the world’s northern latitude forests, using satellite data and on-site observations to measure surface temperatures in the years after fire events.

The main conclusion? The larger the fire, the longer those warmer temperatures lingered. 

“We found a widespread warming effect one year after the fire events,” said Xianli Wang, one of the study’s co-authors and a fire research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service.

“This effect actually lasts quite long. We have 14 years of data and we do see the residual effects even lasts that long.”

The problem with large fires — which Canada saw during the record-breaking 2023 season— is that the burned areas are left blackened, reducing how much sunlight and heat is reflected, akin to an urban heat …