Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in many regions of the world.
Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in many regions of the world. This is due partly to specific weather conditions - known as fire weather - that facilitate the spread of wildfires. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and Australian colleagues have found that fire weather seasons are increasingly overlapping between eastern Australia and western North America. The research team examined the causes of this shift and its implications for cross-border cooperation between fire services in Canada, the US, and Australia. The research was published in Earth's Future.
The west coast of North America and the east coast of Australia have been repeatedly hit hard by wildfires. For example, the January 2025 wildfire disaster in Los Angeles destroyed over 10,000 buildings and claimed 29 lives, according to media reports. The east coast of Australia was hit by one of the countrys most devastating bushfires between September 2019 and March 2020: more than 12 million hectares of forest and bushland burned. Firefighters from Canada, the US, and Australia have supported each other during these disasters and many others.
Read More: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
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