PENNSYLVANIA, USA — As millions of Americans were reminded last week, we are not immune to the impacts of wildfires, even when they’re burning in locations far away.
Smoke from historic wildfires in Canada impacted much of the eastern United States. The fires burning in Canada are occurring earlier than normal and burning a larger area than normal.
According to Kaitlyn Trudeau, a Senior Research Associate with Climate Central, this is all part of a bigger trend.
“We’re seeing a larger number of more intense fires," she says. "Fires that are burning longer, burning hotter, you know, being more erratic."
Trudeau and her colleagues recently released a study examining trends in fire weather days across the US. These are hot, dry, and breezy days that can make wildfires more severe.
“We saw some pretty widespread increases across the country, but especially in the west," Trudeau tells FOX43. "You have some places that are seeing an additional 2 more months of fire weather days now than they did in the early 70s. Which, not saying 2 more months of fires, but 2 more months where the conditions are really set.”
The increase in fire weather days in South Central Pennsylvania is not as extreme, but still notable. Our area is seeing 5 more fire weather days now compared to 50 years ago.
Trudeau also notes that more fire weather days also translates to less opportunities for fire mitigation efforts such as prescribed burns.
Another concern with increasing fire weather includes the expansion of human development into areas where fires are prone to burn. Scientists call this area the wildland urban interface, or the WUI.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, Pennsylvania ranks 5th highest in the nation for the greatest number of houses in the WUI.
When you combine these problems of our warming climate, increased fire weather days, human expansion and more, Trudeau says these issues with wildfires will continue.
“If what we’ve seen in the past continues in the future, we know we can see more really dangerous, deadly, costly fires," says Trudeau. "We’re going to see more health impacts, more asthma, more cardiovascular disease, more lung disease. You’re going to see more businesses that are impacted by heavy smoke days, more children that aren’t going to be able to go to school.”
While this information can be overwhelming, Trudeau says the piece of good news is that we know exactly how to solve this problem, which is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.