The wildfire that continues to rage throughout the Fort McMurray, Alberta area, prompting at least 80,000 people to flee the flames in the largest fire-related evacuation in Alberta's history, is no fluke in this era of megafires across the American West and the mighty Boreal forests of Canada, Alaska and Russia.
It is yet another warning sign of a climate system run amok, due to a combination of human-caused global warming and natural climate variability, according to climate studies and experts.
... The fire erupted during a day of extraordinary warmth in Alberta and nearby provinces, with temperatures reaching 32 degrees Celsius, or about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, all the way to nearly to 60 degrees North latitude.
Such temperatures are virtually unheard of at this time of year, since snow cover typically prevents such mild temperatures from occurring until June at the earliest in the far northern latitudes.
However, due in part to an El Niño event in the tropical Pacific Ocean, the winter season was milder and drier than average, which has led to an anemic snow cover throughout northwest Canada.
This has allowed the soil and vegetation to dry out, making it more susceptible to wildfires.
32 °C = 90 °FIn addition, long-term trends associated with human-caused global warming include earlier spring snow melt and later starts to the winter season, which is lengthening wildfire seasons from Alaska to Alberta, and south to New Mexico.
According to Mike Flannigan, a wildfire specialist at the University of Alberta, the area burned by wildfires in Alberta has more than doubled since 1970, a trend he said is partly tied to global warming.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2013 found that boreal forests, which form a ring around the world just below the Arctic Circle, have been burning at rates that are unprecedented in 10,000 years. That study tied such burn rates to warming temperatures and increased evaporation.
Global warming is also leading to more extreme fire weather days such as what occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday, with dry soils, record temperatures and strong winds.
A study Flannigan published in the journal Climatic Change earlier this year, for example, found that as average temperatures increase in parts of Canada, the result will be "a higher frequency of extreme fire weather days" due mainly to the drying influence of warmer temperatures.
“The weather is becoming more conducive to fire like we’re seeing this spring," Flannigan told Mashable in an interview. “The increase in fire activity in Canada is due to human-caused climate change,” he said.
According to Environment Canada, which is the official weather agency for the country, 26 locations in Alberta set or tied high temperature records on Tuesday, and more record heat and high winds are likely to occur on Wednesday too.