Mike Flannigan

DCRRA This page is part of the ClimateReadyBC site. The British Columbia Disaster and Climate Risk and Resilience Assessment (DCRRA) and the B.C. Hazard Insights Tool provide key information on different ha...

New report out today - theBritish Columbia Disaster and Climate Risk and Resilience Assessment (DCRRA). This assessment includes natural and climate-related hazards in BC—such as floods, extreme heat, wildfires and earthquakes

climatereadybc.gov.bc.ca/pages/dcrra

Graph showing number of fires in Canada and area burned in Canada and BC (green bars) by year for 1959-2025

New Perspective - Canada’s landscape fires spreading into uncharted territory
Canada clearly needs to do more. More to prevent & mitigate wildfires, more to increase our initial response capacity and capability to protect communities & critical infrastructure.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

CTV National News: Calls for action to protect Canadians against wildfires Groups are calling on the federal government to take more action to prevent and combat wildfires. Andrew Johnson reports.

Groups in Canada are calling on the federal government to take more action to prevent and combat wildfires
www.ctvnews.ca/video/2025/1...

10th International Conference on Forest Fire Research &
19th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit Website is now live. Just over a year away.

events.adai.pt/en/10th-icffr

"Canada's landscape fires are spreading into uncharted territory." scholar.google.com/scholar_url?...

Jasper 2024 Wildfire Complex: Documentation, Reconstruction and Analysis
Following a highly destructive 2024 wildfire in Jasper, Alberta, a study was completed to describe the behaviour and contributing environmental factors associated with this event.
ostrnrcan-dostrncan.canada.ca/entities/pub...

Why have Canada's wildfire seasons suddenly gotten worse in recent years?

Stay tuned for a blog post tomorrow!

The climate crisis is fuelling extreme fires across the planet It’s clear – climate change is supercharging the world’s wildfires in unpredictable and devastating ways.

The climate crisis is fuelling extreme fires across the planet

In the past year, an area of land over 3.7 M km², larger than India, was burned worldwide. >100 M people were affected by these fires, and homes and infrastructure worth US$215 billion were at risk.

theconversation.com/the-climate-...

Fire regime changes in Canada: an update Given the recent rise in extreme fires, we present an update to a previous Canadian wildfire trend analysis (1959-2015) with nine additional years of data (2016-2024), an improved area burned dataset,...

🔥 New fire paper out - Fire regime changes in Canada: an update. Overall, the big-picture trends remain consistent: annual area burned, the annual number and size of large fires are still increasing, but the total number of fires for all sizes continue to decline.
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...

For over 15 years the McMaster Ecohydro Lab has awarded the #NobelPeatPrize to the authors of the best peatland or peat paper of the year.

It’s that time of year again where we review papers and finalize a list of nominees.

Do you have a fave paper for 2025 you would like us to consider?

We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs

US and Canada fight over who's to blame for wildfires US officials have blamed Canada for not doing enough to stop its wildfire smoke from wafting south. Climate experts say it’s not so simple.

“Wildfire smoke contains PM2.5 - a type of air pollution - that is known to trigger inflammation in the body. It can exacerbate conditions like asthma and heart disease...” www.bbc.com/news/article... - BBC News

#cdnpoli #uspoli #wildfires

Some active fires in northern Alberta today. GOES-West geocolor loop below. Also, active fires in the Northwest Territories today (not shown in this loop).

Wildfires affect not just the air we breathe, but the water we drink. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15479...

Graph showing Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and lead time for the Fire Weather Index for ensembles and deterministic forecast

🔥New paper - Comparative Analysis of Ensemble and Deterministic Models for Fire Weather Index (FWI) System Forecasting.
Ensemble forecasts for fire management decision-making include probabilistic fire growth modelling, long-term strategic planning etc.

journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

Lecturer - Fire Ecology Academic Job Category Faculty Bargaining Job Title Lecturer - Fire Ecology Department UBCO | Faculty | Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences | Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science (Kevin Hanna...

UBC-O just posted two full-time term lecturer positions in fire ecology as part of the Canadian Prescribed Fire Training Program

The positions will handle fire ecology courses and prescribed fire training.

Applications are open until October 31, 2025.

ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ubcfac...

Graph of annual area burned in BC 1950-2025

Map showing locations and status of fires in BC https://wildfiresituation.nrs.gov.bc.ca/map

The 2025 BC fire season area burned (872k ha) has moved into 5th place with the recent fire activity. This means that the top 6 fire seasons have been since 2017 (records go back to 1950) Area burned-red bars (2017-2025 graph below) far exceeds the green bars (1950-2016). Climate change in action.

Clark's Nutcracker play a pivotal role in the regeneration of Whitebark Pine

3 out of 4 Canadians are concerned about the climate crisis, up 15-points since October 2024, according to Abacus

abacusdata.ca/public-conce...

figure 3 from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09482-1 –c, Daily PM2.5 exposure in Canada (a), from fire sources in different source regions, anthropogenic sources and other sources (for example, biogenic, dust and sea salt). d–f, Cumulative fire-related PM2.5 exposures in Canada (d), from different source regions.

New study in Nature on the Long-range PM2.5 pollution and health impacts from the 2023 Canadian wildfires

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

'We find that 354 million (277–421 million) people in North America and Europe were exposed to daily PM2.5 air pollution caused by Canadian wildfires in 2023'

U.S. Wildfire Fighters to Mask Up After Decades-Long Ban on Smoke Protections The Forest Service is reversing course as it faces growing pressure over workers falling ill with cancer and lung disease. The move is part of a flurry of changes to aid firefighters.

Breaking News: The U.S. will provide wildfire fighters with masks, reversing a ban after a New York Times series on smoke and firefighters’ health.

Discussing the current wildfire situation in Canada, with guest Mike Flannigan - wildfire expert and professor at Thompson Rivers University.

Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwOW...

@mikeflannigan.bsky.social

Canada's wildfire season is still going strong, especially out west.

Join Mike Flannigan and me LIVE tomorrow evening (Monday) at 8 PM MDT / 7 PM PDT for a discussion and Q&A.

Bring your questions!

Chat will be streamed here:

youtube.com/@KylesForeca...

@mikeflannigan.bsky.social

The legacy lost when Forest Service offices shut down After 117 years of operation, the U.S. Forest Service’s Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque is closing by order of the secretary of agriculture. Since 1908, this office has directed the

Our op-ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican today highlights the potential losses from closure of the nine US Forest Service Regional Offices, namely local leadership knowledge and capacity, experienced people, and priceless documentary records: www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_v...

Lighting forecast for this Saturday for Canada - lots of lightning over BC - WA -OR-ID https://meteologix.com/ca/model-charts/euro/canada/lightning-density/20250907-0000z.html

Duff Moisture Code for Canada for Sept 6 - shows high dmc values over parts of western canada https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/maps/fw?type=dmc&year=2025&month=09&day=06

Double Yikes for BC wildfires
Lots of lightning this weekend in BC (& WA-OR-ID) after a very long hot & dry period. Fuels are receptive (Duff Moisture Code is high - means very dry fuels where ltg fires typically ignite). If the forecast holds, I expect 100-200 new fire starts during Sept. 6-9 in BC

BC has 64 out of control wildfires burning and many of these are burning intensely. GOES-West 3.9 micron band (sensitive to high temperatures from wildfires) loop below showing active fires (white) and very active fires (red)

Numerous large and active fires in central BC producing large smoke flumes. GOES- West geocolor below.

Some late fire season fires in the Yukon. GOES-West geocolor loop below.

This is not normal. Japan is continuing its run of astonishing temperature records. The country has just had its hottest summer for the third year in a row, and by a substantial margin. Data: JMA

Global #wildfires #openburning intensity & emissions for August 2025 in #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service GFAS data ads.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/datasets/cam.... Ongoing extreme Canada fires, record Spain+European fires & peak seasonal tropical fires @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social @ecmwf.int