2024 on track to become Canada’s second-worst fire season in two decades
Image credit: Copernicus EU/Sentinel-2, Pierre Markuse
Wildfires are ravaging parts of Canada, with 2024 on track to become the second-worst fire season in two decades. Satellite data indicates that carbon emissions from wildfires have already exceeded the 20-year average. Reports indicate that the number of wildfires in Northern Canada has increased by 50% in the last three weeks.
The number of wildfires in Northern Canada has grown by 50% over the last three weeks. These devastating fires are set to make 2024 the second most extreme fire season in the last two decades, following 2023.
Satellite data analysis from Copernicus GFAS shows that this year’s wildfire carbon emissions are significantly high and have already surpassed the mean emissions from 2003 to 2023 in Canada.
Continued growth in total estimated carbon emissions from devastating Canada #wildfires (+NWT/BC/AB) to 10 August showing 2024 (red solid line) set to soon become 2nd most extreme fire year of the past two decades (after 2023). Analysis with #CopernicusAtmosphere GFAS data. https://t.co/y0DztSVKWP pic.twitter.com/1MqxEC7xCI
— Mark Parrington (@m_parrington) August 11, 2024
Massive fires in the #NorthwestTerritories, #Canada August 10th, 2024 #Copernicus #Sentinel-2 Full-size https://t.co/h9LozVZ18e #SciComm #OpenData Image is about 256 kilometers wide #fire #wildfire pic.twitter.com/ekwi4Sw3HZ
— Pierre Markuse (@Pierre_Markuse) August 11, 2024
Shocking & very worrying overview of #wildfires in Canada. Countless hotspots & hundreds of thousands square kilometers covered in thick smoke slowly moving towards the Atlantic Ocean. One hard summer more, unfortunately (beyond cyclical patterns)
— Iban Ameztoy (@i_ameztoy) August 11, 2024
NOAA20/VIIRS 2024-08-10 pic.twitter.com/7hDASki39X
I am an Assistant Editor and Severe Weather & Science Journalist at The Watchers, specializing in real-time severe weather coverage, geophysical event reporting, and research-driven scientific analysis. You can reach me at rishav(at)watchers(.)news.
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