Global fire seasons have lengthened by almost 20% in the past 30 years, journal article says

Fire weather seasons have lengthened globally by nearly 20% between 1979 and 2013, said a study released on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The study, titled Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979 to 2013, found that globally, fire seasons have lengthened across 29.6 million km2, or 25.3% of the Earth’s vegetated surface, resulting in an 18.7% increase in global mean fire weather season length.

The study also showed a doubling (108.1% increase) of global burnable area affected by long fire weather seasons and an increased global frequency of long weather seasons across 62.4 million km2 (53.4%) during the second half of the study period. “If these fire weather changes are coupled with ignition sources and available fuel, they could markedly impact global ecosystems, societies, economies and climate,” the study authors wrote.

Related: Evacuation orders from Saskatchewan wildfires remain

Over the last decade, annual wildfire suppression costs on United States federal lands exceeded US$1.7 billion and US$1 billion in Canada, the study said. [click image below to enlarge]

Fire seasons have lengthened across 29.6 million km2, or 25.3% of the Earth’s vegetated surface, resulting in an 18.7% increase in global mean fire weather season length

Although the U.S. has witnessed a marked increase in large wildfire frequency and duration over the last several decades, the study noted, “fire weather season length and long fire weather season affected area were only weakly correlated to Canadian boreal forest burned area.”

Related: Evacuation order and alert expanded for aggressive B.C. wildfire

Still, both Saskatchewan and British Columbia have witnessed a number of wildfires in recent days. Just last week, the Canadian military was called in to help fight massive wildfires in northern Saskatchewan, including one near La Ronge that was, at one point, “more than five times the size of the city of Saskatoon.”

In B.C., a 8,089-hectare wildfire that was discovered on July 8 is now 40% contained. However, as of Monday, there were 251 active wildfires across the province. Since April 1, B.C. has had 1,065 fires, more than double the 462 wildfires reported in the same time period in 2014.