Fuel aridity emerges as dominant driver of severity in recent Canadian wildfires

It has also been found that such fires are becoming faster in places like the U.S. where they release embers into the air ahead of rapidly encroaching flames, igniting human structures before emergency responders can intervene, all because of stronger winds. In this new effort, the research team in Canada wanted to know more about the major drivers behind the increase in the number and size of wildfires over the past several decades in their country.

Jianbang Gan, with Texas A&M University, has published a Perspective piece in the same journal, outlining the work done by the team and others working to understand the major drivers of wildfires in other parts of the world.

In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they collected and analyzed 40 years of spatiotemporal wildfire data for Canada and used the findings to build a multinomial logistic regression model as a means for better understanding the increase in number and severity of wildfires in Canada over the past several decades.

A team of forest management specialists affiliated with various institutions across Canada has found that fuel aridity has been the most influential driver of burn severity in wildfires in Canada over the past several decades.

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Fuel aridity emerges as dominant driver of severity in recent Canadian wildfires (2025, January 4)
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In looking at what their model showed, the researchers found fuel aridity (dryness of the trees) to be the most influential driver of burn severity. They also found that summer wildfires tended to be more severe and conditions for such fires have grown worse over the past two decades. The researchers conclude by noting that variations in drivers led to different outcomes in different parts of the country.

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