Climate Change Lengthens Wildfire Season by 36%

0:00It's April 17th, Canada News Today starts now, AI powered and ready, I'm Cory with the story. A new study drops some heavy truth on North American wildfires. Climate change is stretching their burning time way longer, with flames raging later. At night and kicking off earlier in the morning, hotter, drier conditions mean the number of hours ripe for fire is up 36% compared to 50 years back. Just like adding hundreds of extra risky hours each year across the U.S. and Canada. In spots like California, it's 550 more potential burning hours than the mid-1970s. Southwestern New Mexico and Central Arizona topped the list with up to 2,000 extra hours annually. Recent blazes prove it by the Lahaina Fire and Hawaii that sparked just after midnight in 2023 the Jasper Fire and Alberta last year. In Los Angeles fires this year, all pushing through the night. Firefighter space nightmares when flames don't chill out after dark.

1:00Animals get spooked and aggressive, visibility sucks, and crews lose that reliable nighttime break to regroup. Nights are warming faster than days by 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit in U.S. summers since 1975, keeping humidity low and fuels. Dry, especially in droughts that create a vicious drying cycle. There's crunch data from nearly 9,000 big fires between 2017 and 2023, building a model that tracks back to 1975. And even projects ahead, fire prone days jumped 44% adding 26 days a year on average. Burn areas in the U.S. now average over 11,000 square miles yearly, 2.6 times the 1980s levels, with Canada scene, similar spikes. This all points to fires getting fiercer and tougher to tame as the planet heats up, stressing forests and upping the fuel load for tomorrow's. In Fernos.