Canadian forests primed for more severe wildfire days, new research warns [Video]

Canadian forests are increasingly primed for severe, uncontrollable wildfires, a study published Thursday said, underlining what the authors described as a pressing need to proactively mitigate the “increased threat posed by climate change.”

The study by Canadian researchers, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science, looked at Canadian fire severity from 1981 to 2020.

“The widespread increases, along with limited decreases, in high-burn severity days during 1981 to 2020 indicate the increasingly severe fire situation and more challenging fire season under the changing climate in Canada,” the study read.

Co-author Xianli Wang, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says there were on average an additional two days conducive to high-severity fires in 2000 to 2020, compared to the previous two decades.

In some areas, it was closer to five days.

While that may not sound like much, last summer’s devastating wildfire in Jasper, Alta., grew to about 60 square kilometres in a matter of hours.